The number of migrants trying to cross into Poland from Belarus hit a record for the year so far on Monday after people were moved out of a warehouse camp near the border, according to charity workers.
Grupa Granica, a coalition of charities, said that migrants held at the border camp in Belarus were given an ultimatum to move into the forests or head across the border to Ukraine.
The Polish border guard said that 134 people tried to cross from Belarus on Monday, the largest daily number this year, while attention was focused further south on the refugee crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Charities working with the new arrivals said the crossings came after migrants were told to leave an accommodation centre on the Belarus side of the border. The people detained by Polish border guards included 16 Iraqis who were rescued from marshes, the agency said in a post on Twitter.
Poland in January started building a 186-kilometre barrier between the two countries to try to prevent a repeat of the surge of migrants seen last year, when about 40,000 attempts were made to reach the EU through Poland.
Belarus last year set up an accommodation centre at Bruzgi on the border with Poland where several thousand people stayed at the height of the crisis. Grupa Granica said only the most vulnerable remained there earlier this week, including mothers with very young children.
They said those that had tried to cross the border into Poland after the eviction included a mother with a six-week-old baby. Migrants from Sri Lanka, India, Yemen, Syria and Turkey are among those who have attempted the crossing so far this year.
Poland accused Belarus of deliberately stoking last year’s crisis by issuing visas in Kurdish areas of Iraq and other parts of the Middle East to test European resolve and its border security.
Experts described the move as an element of “hybrid war” that culminated in last month’s Russian attack on Ukraine.
Grupa Granica said on Tuesday that 90 people had asked for help in the past 24 hours, with women and children in particular in need of aid.
“We were dealing with three or four quite large groups with more than 10 people and including children,” said Monika Matus from the group.
The organisation posted a video of a small camp in the forest, where it said four very young children had been found.
It also highlighted the case of a Syrian family with a 5-year-old child who were detained by Polish border guards and feared being returned to Belarus.
“If they are taken to the forest, they will not survive,” said the charity coalition.
The European policing agency warned on Monday that people fleeing war risked being exploited by human traffickers.
It said that unaccompanied children arriving in the EU were “particularly at risk”, with countries such as Poland under pressure to monitor and record people because of the vast numbers arriving from war-torn areas.
The EU said last week that Belarus, an ally of Moscow, had become a “military district” of Russia.
It has increasingly relied on Russia since President Alexander Lukashenko's regime was weakened by mass protests in 2020. Russia used the opportunity for deeper military integration with Belarus, culminating in some of the attacks on Ukraine being launched from Belarusian territory.
More on Quran memorisation:
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
In numbers: China in Dubai
The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000
Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000
Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent
Dhadak 2
Director: Shazia Iqbal
Starring: Siddhant Chaturvedi, Triptii Dimri
Rating: 1/5
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
LEAGUE CUP QUARTER-FINAL DRAW
Stoke City v Tottenham
Brentford v Newcastle United
Arsenal v Manchester City
Everton v Manchester United
All ties are to be played the week commencing December 21.
Wydad 2 Urawa 3
Wydad Nahiri 21’, Hajhouj 90'
Urawa Antonio 18’, 60’, Kashiwagi 26’
The%20specs
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E6.5-litre%20V12%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E725hp%20at%207%2C750rpm%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E716Nm%20at%206%2C250rpm%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E8-speed%20dual-clutch%20auto%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EQ4%202023%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFrom%20Dh1%2C650%2C000%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The results of the first round are as follows:
Qais Saied (Independent): 18.4 per cent
Nabil Karoui (Qalb Tounes): 15.58 per cent
Abdelfattah Mourou (Ennahdha party): 12.88 per cent
Abdelkarim Zbidi (two-time defence minister backed by Nidaa Tounes party): 10.7 per cent
Youssef Chahed (former prime minister, leader of Long Live Tunisia): 7.3 per cent
The National in Davos
We are bringing you the inside story from the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos, a gathering of hundreds of world leaders, top executives and billionaires.
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cyl turbo
Power: 247hp at 6,500rpm
Torque: 370Nm from 1,500-3,500rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 7.8L/100km
Price: from Dh94,900
On sale: now
