Poland said Wednesday it had seen a surge in attempts to breach its border and pushed back hundreds of migrants to Belarus, accusing Minsk of "state terrorism" by provoking a new migrant crisis in Europe.

Concern was growing for more than 2,000 migrants -- mainly Kurds from the Middle East -- who are trapped at the border, with the UN Security Council to hold an emergency meeting on Thursday over the issue.

The migrants, mainly from the Middle East, have spent days in freezing temperatures on the border, blocked by rows of Polish border guards behind razor-wire
The migrants, mainly from the Middle East, have spent days in freezing temperatures on the border, blocked by rows of Polish border guards behind razor-wire BELTA via AFP / Leonid Shcheglov

Western governments accuse Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko of luring them to his country and sending them to cross into European Union and NATO member Poland in retaliation for EU sanctions.

"What we are facing here, we must be clear, is a manifestation of state terrorism," Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told reporters in Warsaw at a news conference with visiting EU chief Charles Michel.

Michel said new sanctions against Belarus "are on the table".

Map showing the border crossing points between Belarus and the three EU countries of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.
Map showing the border crossing points between Belarus and the three EU countries of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. AFP / Kenan AUGEARD

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said she expected "a widening of the sanctions" at the beginning of next week.

"This is the attempt of an authoritarian regime to try to destabilise its democratic neighbours. This will not succeed," she said, speaking after a meeting with US President Joe Biden in Washington.

The migrants, mainly from the Middle East, have spent days in freezing temperatures on the border, blocked by rows of Polish border guards behind razor-wire
The migrants, mainly from the Middle East, have spent days in freezing temperatures on the border, blocked by rows of Polish border guards behind razor-wire BELTA via AFP / Leonid Shcheglov

Migrants have been trying to cross the border for months but the crisis reached a new level when hundreds made a concerted effort on Monday and were pushed back by Polish borders guards.

They set up a camp on the border, sheltering in tents and burning wood from local forests to keep warm, blocked by Polish guards behind razor-wire.

Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei was in Moscow for talks with Minsk's main ally
Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei was in Moscow for talks with Minsk's main ally POOL via AFP / Yuri KOCHETKOV

In the Polish town of Sokolka near the border, AFP reporters saw patrols stopping vehicles to check the boots for migrants, as well as lines of military trucks and police vans going to and from the border.

"The residents here are under constant stress," Sokolka's deputy mayor Piotr Romanowicz told AFP.

Izabela Korecki, 38, who was walking in the town centre with her daughters, said she felt "tense".

Polish military personnel travel to the Belarus border area after a surge in migrants trying to cross
Polish military personnel travel to the Belarus border area after a surge in migrants trying to cross AFP / Wojtek RADWANSKI

"We hear the sirens and helicopters all the time," she said.

Journalists and charity workers have been banned from the immediate border area by Polish authorities under state of emergency rules.

Belarus-Poland border crossings
Belarus-Poland border crossings AFP / Eléonore HUGHES

Poland has sent 15,000 troops to the border along with police and border guards, accusing Belarus of using intimidation to force migrants to breach the frontier.

Belarus has in turn accused Poland of violating international norms by blocking the migrants and violently beating them back.

In a back street of Sokolka, Anna Chmielewska, a volunteer with the Ocalenie (Salvation) Foundation, was sorting through a garage filled with donated food and clothes intended for migrants.

"I can't believe we are living in times like these. We are here, we are ready to help but we cannot," she said, explaining that volunteers could only help migrants who make it beyond the border area.

Kyle McNally, a humanitarian affairs adviser at Doctors Without Borders who has met with migrants on the Belarusian side of the border, called for "unfettered access" to assist them.

"The people that we have spoken with and we have seen are really in a desperate state and it's getting worse by the day," he said.

The EU in a statement late Wednesday also called for humanitarian organisations to get "immediate and unhindered" to those needing aid.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday called Lukashenko's main backer, Russian President Vladimir Putin, asking him "to use his influence" with Minsk to stop what she called an "inhumane" instrumentalisation of migrants.

But Belarus and Moscow have said the West should deal with migrant flows caused by its military interventions in the Middle East.

The Kremlin said it was "irresponsible" for Poland to blame Putin for the crisis, while Belarus's Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei said the EU was causing the crisis because it wanted a reason to impose new sanctions.

"The migrant crisis was provoked by the EU itself and its states that border Belarus," Makei said on a visit to Moscow to meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday.

Lavrov accused Western institutions of mounting an "anti-Belarusian campaign", and said Russia and Belarus had "closely coordinated our approaches" to countering it.

At least 10 migrants have died on the Poland-Belarus border, seven of them on the Polish side of the border, according to the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza.