The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) asked Latvia and Poland to help Iraqi and Afghan migrants stuck on the border with Belarus in an interim decision released on Wednesday, Politico.eu reports.
The ECHR noted that “this measure should not be understood as requiring that Poland or Latvia let the applicants enter their territories.” Instead the court asked the countries to intervene to provide the migrants with “food, water, clothing, adequate medical care and, if possible, temporary shelter.”
The court said that the order should apply from Wednesday until September 15 inclusive.
The request comes as several countries in Eastern Europe have said that Belarus is sending migrants towards their border as payback for 2020 EU sanctions, which were imposed after the country’s authoritarian leader Aleksander Lukashenko launched a crackdown on people protesting his regime.
The fate of the migrants is unclear, as Poland and Latvia have refused to allow the migrants to cross their borders, but Belarus have not let them return.
