Poland Plans To Extend Border Emergency Despite Migrant Deaths

Poland's interior minister on Monday asked for a state of emergency along the border with Belarus to be extended for 60 days as the EU slammed migrant deaths on that stretch and demanded explanations from Warsaw.

The emergency measures adopted earlier this month by Poland to cope with an influx of migrants ban all non-residents, including journalists and charity workers, from going near the border -- a move slammed by charities and rights activists.

Six migrants have died along the European Union's eastern border with Belarus in the past two months.

"I will recommend to the government the extension of the state of emergency on the Polish-Belarusian border," Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski said at a press conference.

Kaminski also warned that dozens of the migrants detained so far by Polish authorities "were carrying proof of radicalism", including links to the Taliban and the Islamic State group.

He said some of the migrants had also been living in Russia.

The ministry said 8,200 people have been prevented from crossing the border and 1,200 have done so and been detained.

Non-governmental groups have warned of a humanitarian crisis for migrants crossing the border as temperatures begins to dip and have asked for access to provide medical assistance.

They have also accused the government of implementing a pushback policy, preventing the migrants from making asylum claims and forcing them back across the border into Belarus.

The European Union accuses Belarus of deliberately orchestrating the influx of migrants in retaliation against EU sanctions over the Moscow-backed regime's crackdown on dissent.

European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson on Monday sought "transparency" from Poland over the migrant deaths.

"I'm very worried about the fact that... people have died there at the border," she said. "I think it is really important to investigate and the Polish authorities have said that they will investigate what has happened.

"It is totally unacceptable that people are dying at our external borders... it is important that we have transparency," she added.

The European Court of Human Rights meanwhile asked Poland to extend aid to 32 Afghan migrants stranded at the Belarusian border and to not send them back.

The 32 Afghans, who appealed to the ECHR for help on August 20, had been stranded for about seven weeks in a makeshift camp between Belarus and Poland.

They said they had fled their country after the Taliban seized power and had crossed the border between Belarus and Poland on August 8 before being forcibly turned back by Polish border guards, the ECHR said in a statement.

The Strasbourg-based court had urged Poland to "provide the applicants with food, water, clothing, adequate medical care and, if possible, temporary shelter".

On Monday, it asked Warsaw to "also allow direct contact between the migrants and their lawyers, and not to return them to Belarus if they are on Polish territory and have provided accurate information about themselves".

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