After the European Union imposed sanctions on Minsk last june over serious human rights violations, a new humanitarian crisis is developing at the borders of Belarus and the EU.European leaders accuse Belarusian President Aleksander Lukashenko’s government of retaliating by pushing thousands of Afghan and Syrian refugees into neighbouring eastern European countries, which in response have sealed their borders.

Scores of migrants are stranded in the border region between Belarus, Poland and Lithuania. A refugee based in Austria has headed to Poland in hopes of finding his father and mother. Magdalena Gwozdz-Pallokat reports.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has accused Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko of "unscrupulously exploiting" the migrants by sending them towards Poland.

The Kremlin said Russia is trying to resolve the situation. The EU is reportedly preparing sanctions against a Russian airline over the transportation of migrants to Belarus.

Turkey has banned nationals from Iraq, Syria and Yemen from traveling to Belarus. It comes amid EU pressure over migrants stranded at Belarus' border with Poland.

As the situation on the border between Poland and Belarus is deteriorating dramatically for thousands of migrants, others are trying to get into the EU via the Baltic states.

Thousands of people are stranded in the cold in Belarus, at the border with Poland. As the EU discusses new sanctions, the president of Belarus is threatening to cut off the bloc's gas supply. What is Germany's response?

Lithuania's foreign minister has defended his country's newly-imposed state of emergency on and around its border with Belarus, amid an increasing number of irregular migrants trying to cross – and has accused the Belarusian president of orchestrating "instrumentalised migration" and participating in "trafficking". Gabrielius Landsbergis told FRANCE 24's Catherine Nicholson that Lithuanian border officials need "more legal instruments to really secure the border", which runs for approximately 700 kilometres.

The EU is far from being at the end of its "sanctions spiral" against Belarus, says Germany's top diplomat Heiko Maas amid a standoff with Minsk over migrants.

In this special edition, we focus on the migrant crisis brewing on the European Union's eastern border. Thousands of people from the Middle East have travelled to Belarus in the hope of entering the EU. Now they are trapped on the border with Poland, desperately trying to survive in freezing conditions. We take a closer look and speak to Kinda Youssef from our InfoMigrants website.

Belarus has signaled its intention to talk with the EU over the humanitarian situation at the Polish-Belarusian border. But the deadlock has proven fatal for some of the thousands stranded while trying to reach the EU.

In a phone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Belarus' president reportedly said his country is ready to negotiate with the EU on solving the crisis at the Polish border.