For two days, the speakers on the Polish border have been playing the same loop recording: “Attention! Attention! Crossing the Polish border is only legal at the border crossing.”
The ominous warning is for thousands of asylum seekers who have gathered there Belarus Opposite the barbed wire between the two countries.
According to Poland, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko deliberately provoked a new refugee crisis in Belarus. Europe By organizing the flow of immigrants from the Middle East to Minsk, and promising that they can safely enter the European Union, in retaliation for the sanctions imposed by Brussels against its authoritarian regime.
Nearly 20,000 Polish border police are now deployed on both sides of military support to showcase the country’s unknown force since the end of the Cold War.
Until a few days ago, most of the immigrants were violently pushed back, although some managed to reach Warsaw after hiding in the dense forest.
Since the Belarusian authorities began escorting thousands of migrants to the Polish border on Monday, the already deadly crisis has escalated sharply and crossing the border has become more difficult.
In the forest between the two countries, the night temperature dropped below zero, and now it is the thousands of Iraqi, Syrian and Afghan families who are paying the price, who are scapegoats trapped between the violence and false promises of the Polish authorities . Belarus.
They live in small tents hidden among the trees, trying to keep warm with damp sleeping bags. At least eight people died.
The Guardian met with three Iraqi Kurdish families from Duhawk, including at least eight children, who had just crossed the border from Belarus.
Volunteers from the Polish NGO network Grupa Granica arrived in the woods near Narewka before the Polish border police, and with the help of asylum lawyers prevented them from being driven back to Belarus.
“We drove to Istanbul for three days,” said a 40-year-old man who said he had to leave Iraq’s Duhok province for fear of retaliation from former Islamic State members in nearby villages.
He told the interpreter that after they took a plane from the Turkish city to Minsk and arrived at the Polish border, “the Belarusian police cut the barbed wire and let us pass.”
The families had tried to cross the border nine times before but were pushed back each time.
“After they arrived, the Polish border guards took them in a car and transferred them to the border patrol station,” said Anna Alboth of the NGO Minority Rights Group.
“We tried to monitor the situation because, based on our past experience, the Polish police kept migrants out after they brought them to the police station.”
The right-wing government in Warsaw quadrupled the border guards and military personnel in the area, established a two-mile-deep military zone and built a barbed wire fence.
There are dozens of checkpoints all around the area. The soldiers stopped each car, asked for documents and asked the driver to open the trunk.
On the streets near Sokolka, about 12 miles from the Belarusian border, police cars often honked their horns toward the safe area, while multiple helicopters monitored the scene from above.
Kyle McNally, a humanitarian affairs consultant for Doctors Without Borders (MSF), said: “The situation is desperate and it is getting worse.”
“I have witnessed the injuries people suffered when they were attacked by the border guards of the two countries. Poland And Lithuania.
“People have described being beaten with rifle butts, kicked in the ribs, and shocked to the neck. All their belongings were taken or destroyed by the European Border Guard. This is unacceptable and it must end now.”
According to MSF, a Syrian family slept in the forest on the Polish side of the border for 21 days before being forced to return.
The only help they get is kind locals, risking their own safety. But the Polish authorities forced them to return to Belarus, and now they are waiting for an uncertain fate.
The Polish government sent a text message to the cell phone of the recently arrived traveller, warning that “the Polish border has been blocked”, “Belarus lied to you” and “return to Minsk”.
This message-aimed at asylum seekers, but will be sent to most Polish travelers who have recently filled out a location form-contains a link to the mysterious warning of asylum seekers: “Don’t take any pills or pills given to you in Belarus. Medicine. You may be poisoned!”
Anna Chmielewska, coordinator of the Ocalenie Foundation and the Foreigners’ Help Center in Warsaw, said: “At the beginning of October, the Polish government told the media that the behavior of immigrants was strange and they thought they were drugged or poisoned by Belarusians. Chief.
“We don’t have more information about this story, but to me it sounds like fake news, making immigration look dangerous and Belarus looking bad.”
