Muslim Refugees on The Belarus-Polish Border Wait to Get Out of The Freezing Cold

ALBAWABA -  So what is really happening on the Polish-Belarus border? Is the news feeds from the social media correct? Human chaos maybe? Desperation?

Problem No. 1: Thousands of Muslim migrants/refugees, including Syrians, Iraqis, Kurds are assembled in Belarus. They are then taken to the Belarus-Polish border and told to cross. But how nobody knows! This is no walk-over.

Problem No 2: The Polish authorities are prevent them from stepping into their territory. It is clear the refugees, numbering as much as  6000 and up to 1000 of these are children intend to using Poland as a staging post to the rest of Europe including into Austria, German, Italy, Switzerland, France, Holland and Belgium. This is not to forget the fact that Poland is now in NATO and very much guard the eastern flank of western alliance.

But the problem is exacerbated, made much worse because it involves women and children who have paid thousands of dollars and euros to get to Belarus only to be told this is not the end of the journey. They are also claims and counter-claims reaching a crisis point between the authorities in Belarus and Poland that will not simply end overnight. Meanwhile the human mass is left out in the cold.

With temperatures at below freezing point kids are literally freezing to death. Before people start saying this is melodramtic think of the 14-year-old by who just froze to death waiting at the border between the two-countries. And no doubt there will be more because there is no food either. So how will they cope nobody knows. But the two sides are not budging. 

Many are saying the Belarus authorities are using women and children as propaganda tools. Fathers are being told to make the kids "look dirty and tired". If this is the case, many are sure that the authorities are telling them to do this not for the benefit of Polish and European officials who are blatantly refusing to open the gates. 

But it is claimed Belarus want European officials to look bad in front of the cameras who have since descended en masse to this picturesque part of Poland. What will happen to the refugees standing on this border part of the European continent is anybody's guess. 

If push comes to shove, there are already tweets suggesting that Belarus may relent. After all, this is a "migrant-refugee fiasco" that can't be doing them nor the Poles or EU officials any good. Minsk might in the end become stuck with then and grant them asylum. 

That's one point. Another is how did those people get be in Belarus and what on earth did it want to do with them? Don't them have enough on their plates? But that's another story.