WARSAW, Nov 30 Reuters -- Poland can limit access to its border with Belarus after lawmakers rejected amendments to a law that will come into force when a state of emergency over a surge in migrants trying to cross the frontier ends.
Media and aid charities were banned from being able to serve in the border region in September due to the state of emergency declared in the region. The ban was intended to cover up rights abuses and to get unfettered access, and the opposition said it was intended to cover up rights abuses.
The interior minister will be able to implement limits on access to the border zone after consulting with the head of the Border Guard. NGOs and journalists may be able to enter the border guard's discretion.
The state of emergency is extended to its maximum duration of three months and ends at midnight.
The restrictions were necessary for security reasons and to stop any escalation of a standoff regional powers that have said risks are a military conflict, according to the government.
The European Union accuses Minsk of engineering the migrant crisis to back off at sanctions. Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarusian leader, accuses the EU of deliberately provoking a humanitarian crisis.
The Senate voted on Friday in favor of amendments that would have allowed journalists and humanitarian aid workers unlimited access to the exclusion zone next to the border, but these amendments were rejected by the lower house.
Poland's Human Rights Ombudsman criticised the new law, saying it gives the interior minister the right to limit freedom of movement and limit access to information about what is happening on the border indefinitely.
Since mid-November, when Polish security forces fired water cannon at migrants throwing rocks, there are still nightly attempts to force through barbed wire fencing on the frontier.
The Polish border guard said there were 134 attempts to cross the Belarus border on Monday.