TonHis call came in around 1.30 pm. A group of 15 people, all Iraqi Kurds, were found in the woods of Narewka after trying to cross the border. Belarus enters Poland. A woman can barely walk. Others have early signs of hypothermia.
The young volunteer answering the call was one of about 40 members of Grupa Granica, a network of Polish non-governmental organizations responsible for monitoring the situation at the border, and they knew they had to act quickly.
If Polish police arrive before the doctor, they are likely to send the migrant back Belarus, Their health may deteriorate and become fatal.
Since the beginning of the humanitarian and political crisis, at least 8 people have died. Crisis with Belarus, The organization is accused of retaliating against the sanctions imposed by Brussels against its authoritarian regime by organizing the movement of people from the Middle East to Minsk and promising them safe passage to the European Union, thereby deliberately provoking a new refugee crisis in Europe. Poland has deployed about 20,000 border police, but in turn has been accused of using violence to push thousands back to the border.
“We have about 8 teams near the border, with a total of about 40 people. Whenever we receive a call from our family, we will forward the request to our team and we will check who is the closest person to the place, “Anna Alboth of the Minority Rights Group said she is also a member of Grupa Granica. “Immigration often asks for food, water, doctor or a pair of shoes. I met a Syrian family without shoes.”
After the phone call, I just had time to put on warm clothes and prepare hot tea for the immigrants.
“Working in the border area is difficult on many levels,” said Anna Chimilevska, coordinator of the Foreigners Help Center in Warsaw. ‘”First of all we can’t enter the safe zone [a two-mile deep militarised zone created by the Polish government] This means that we cannot help the people there. Only local people can help in the area. Only when people can pass through the area and meet us outside, we can reach them-some people cannot pass through the area. Winter is here, and people are not prepared to stay outside day after day in the cold. We are worried that bad weather will cause more deaths. “
The team is able to The woods near Narewka are in front of the Polish border police. They crossed the border from Belarus the day before. It’s getting dark, and the temperature has dropped to nearly zero degrees Celsius. After arriving at the scene, the team provided blankets and hot tea to these families.
“The border police can be very aggressive,” Chmielewska said. “We did not do anything illegal, but they made us feel that we were illegal. It should be normal to help people. But in this case, it became like a secret activity. I just feel that in this era, Here, on this border, legal things are far from moral things.”
At about 4 pm, the police rushed to the woods. A few minutes ago, the volunteer explained to the group how to apply for asylum.
The asylum lawyer subsequently explained to the police that they have an obligation to allow people to submit applications for international protection, on the grounds that any delay would violate various international laws. Before officials took the group to the border patrol station, there was only one last hug between the asylum seeker and the volunteer.
Then the phone rang again.
