(ANSA-AFP) - WARSAW, DEC 1 - Poland on Tuesday extended emergency measures restricting access to its border with Belarus which is at the centre of a migrant crisis the West blames on Minsk. The interior ministry announced the extension of a controversial state of emergency that bars all non-residents -- including journalists and NGOs -- from the border area where thousands of mainly Middle Eastern migrants have been blocked from entering the European Union. The West has accused Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko's regime of orchestrating the crisis and posing a so-called hybrid threat to the EU, which Minsk denies. Poland's conservative-controlled parliament on Tuesday rejected Senate amendments allowing journalists to travel to the border and President Andrzej Duda signed new measures allowing the interior minister to ban access to parts of the border area depending on the situation. Under Polish law, a state of emergency can last three months at most.

The current measures started in September and had been due to end at midnight. (ANSA-AFP).