West condemns Belarus at UN over stranded migrants

Western members of the UN Security Council have condemned Belarus for the escalating crisis over migrants stranded on its border with Poland.

Russia, Belarus’s main ally, rejected the accusations.

Earlier, Belarus’s authoritarian leader threatened to cut off gas supplies to Europe if new sanctions were imposed.

Thousands of people, many of them Kurds arriving from the Middle East, are camping at the border with Poland, enduring freezing conditions in the hope of crossing into the EU. The migrants are mainly young men — but there are also women and children.