
CNN's Matthew Chance has gained exclusive access inside a makeshift migrant camp at Bruzgi, at the Belarusian border with Poland.
Walking through a crowd that's swelled to some 2,000 people in recent days, Chance detailed harrowing scenes of hunger and despair.
People are starving and desperate for firewood, he said, and are scrambling to get fires lit before the sun goes down to avoid hypothermia.
CNN also documented chaotic scenes at a food distribution area. As the Belarusian Red Cross tried to hand out food aid, Belarusian security forces were pushing crowds back. Around 200 children and 600 women are trapped at the border, according to authorities.
Chance explained that people fleeing war-torn countries such as Syria and Iraq had come to Belarus with the expressed purpose of moving deeper into Europe and of trying to find a better life. But inside the camp, there's a bitter sense of disappointment that isn't happening.
Meanwhile, more people keep arriving. Belarusian authorities told Chance that the number of migrant arrivals to the border could swell to 10,000 in the upcoming weeks -- if the standoff continues.
WATCH CNN's Matthew Chance report from the Belarusian border here: