U.N. rights chief urges Belarus neighbours to protect asylum-seekers

FILE PHOTO: A view of a vehicle next to a fence built by Polish soldiers on the border between Poland and Belarus near the village of Nomiki, Poland August 26, 2021. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/File Photo

GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations human rights chief called on Belarus' neighbours on Friday to protect asylum seekers after four people died near the Polish border earlier this week amid a surge in illegal migration across the European Union's eastern frontier.

Michelle Bachelet also told the U.N. Human Rights Council that Belarusian authorities had clamped down on fundamental freedoms, with arrests of activists and journalists "on what routinely appear to be politically-motivated charges".