Syrian baby 'dies in forests' on Poland-Belarus border

A Syrian boy, aged 1, has died in the forests around the border with Belarus, a Polish aid agency said.

The Polish Emergency Medical Team, a group that operates in the world’s disaster zones, said the child was with his parents when he died on Thursday.

An exact death toll for migrants on the chaotic border has been hard to collate, partly because of limited access to journalists and humanitarian groups.

The group said the boy died early on Thursday after its staff had found the family suffering from dehydration.

“Around 2.26am we received a report that at least one person needed medical assistance,” the charity tweeted.

“When we arrived on the spot, it turned out that three people were injured. They had been in the forest for 1.5 months.

“The man had a lacerated wound to his arm and the woman had a stab wound to her lower leg. Their one-year-old child died in the forest.”

A Polish law enforcement officer uses tear gas, as migrants attempt to cross the border at a checkpoint in the Grodno region of Belarus. Reuters

Polish law enforcement officers line up at the Bruzgi-Kuznica border crossing. AFP

A man breaks a fence at the border. Reuters

A drone view as Polish servicemen use a water cannon during clashes between migrants and Polish border guards. AP

A woman receives medical attention at the Bruzgi-Kuznica border crossing. AFP

Polish servicemen use a water cannon at the border. Polish border forces said they were attacked with stones by migrants. AP

A man runs away from a water cannon during the clashes. AP Photo

A man throws a stone in the direction of a border fence and Polish law enforcement officers. Reuters

Migrants gather at the Bruzgi-Kuznica border crossing. AFP

The group provides humanitarian, development and medical relief around the world, including after earthquakes and in areas where there is limited medical expertise.

A humanitarian crisis has developed on the Polish-Belarusian border over the past week after months of simmering.

Poland and the EU accuse Belarus of stoking the border chaos by sending more and more migrants to the border in retaliation for sanctions imposed against Minsk.

Warsaw has pushed back thousands of asylum seekers approaching its borders after passing new legislation in mid-October, contrary to international law and convention.

About 20,000 border police have been sent to the Polish frontier and pleas for help have gone out to the UK, EU and Nato.

Poland in September introduced a state of emergency on the border. Journalists, aid agencies and even volunteer medics are forbidden from entering the three-kilometre buffer.

Hundreds of Iraqi migrants were flown home from Belarus on Thursday after failing to cross the border into the EU.

Passengers on the repatriation flights told of the dire circumstances at the border but some said they would try again to reach the EU.

Gender equality in the workplace still 200 years away

It will take centuries to achieve gender parity in workplaces around the globe, according to a December report from the World Economic Forum.

The WEF study said there had been some improvements in wage equality in 2018 compared to 2017, when the global gender gap widened for the first time in a decade.

But it warned that these were offset by declining representation of women in politics, coupled with greater inequality in their access to health and education.

At current rates, the global gender gap across a range of areas will not close for another 108 years, while it is expected to take 202 years to close the workplace gap, WEF found.

The Geneva-based organisation's annual report tracked disparities between the sexes in 149 countries across four areas: education, health, economic opportunity and political empowerment.

After years of advances in education, health and political representation, women registered setbacks in all three areas this year, WEF said.

Only in the area of economic opportunity did the gender gap narrow somewhat, although there is not much to celebrate, with the global wage gap narrowing to nearly 51 per cent.

And the number of women in leadership roles has risen to 34 per cent globally, WEF said.

At the same time, the report showed there are now proportionately fewer women than men participating in the workforce, suggesting that automation is having a disproportionate impact on jobs traditionally performed by women.

And women are significantly under-represented in growing areas of employment that require science, technology, engineering and mathematics skills, WEF said.

* Agence France Presse

Syrian baby 'dies in forests' on Poland-Belarus border

Polish charity workers say boy, 1, died after they found family suffering from dehydration

Gender equality in the workplace still 200 years away