A group of Afghan refugees fled their country and headed to Europe last month, only to find themselves trapped in Poland and Belarus In the “Kafka-style” political deadlock.
According to reports, the 32 refugees-women, men and a 15-year-old child-were trapped in a small muddy land between the two countries for nearly three weeks, without access to clean water, insufficient shelter and Intermittent food supply. To Polish NGOs.
Despite seeking international protection in Poland, they were not allowed to enter, and border guards prevented them from entering. They will not be allowed to return to Belarus. They are from Belarus and hope to enter the European Union.
According to the Ocalenie Foundation, which has been monitoring the situation for the past week, a member of the organization, a 53-year-old woman, is ill and is in urgent need of medical assistance.Mariana Watka A spokesperson for the NGO said that the border guard refused her access to health professionals.
“Now this is a humanitarian crisis,” she said. “They don’t have a proper shelter. They can’t get clean water. They drink from a nearby stream, which is really dirty.”
EU countries accuse Belarusian authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko of trying to destabilize the EU By encouraging refugees from Afghanistan, Iraq and other places Enter the country on a tourist visa. They then said that he sent them to the border with Poland and the Baltic States in retaliation for the sanctions imposed by Brussels in June.
Human rights watchers said the group of Afghans were trapped near the village of Usnarz Górny, about 55 kilometers east of Bialystok, and they found themselves in the crosshairs of the conflict.
“They are victims of political games between countries,” said Amnesty International activist Aleksandra Fertlińska (Aleksandra Fertlińska). Poland“But most importantly, it doesn’t matter what the roots of this political game are. They are refugees and are protected. [the] The Geneva Conventions, what we need to do is… accept them. “
Last week, the European Court of Human Rights ordered Poland and Latvia to help refugees and migrants gathered at their borders by providing them with “food, water, clothing, adequate medical services, and temporary shelter where possible.” It added that it did not require any country to “let applicants into their territory.”
A group of Iraqi Kurds are in a similar situation on the border between Latvia and Belarus.
In response to the court’s interim ruling, the Polish right-wing government stated that its Ministry of Foreign Affairs Have repeatedly raised Provide humanitarian assistance to refugees entering Belarus. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior said: “These people are on the Belarusian side of the border.”
Agnieszka KubalAn immigration scholar at University College London stated that the proposal was hypocritical at best.
“We are in a situation where the Polish border guards are standing a few meters away from these people in a tight cordon, and the Polish authorities are sending a truck to Belarus to contact these people from the other side. This is Kafka style. Circumstances. This is so ridiculous that I can’t speak.”
As suggested by the Taliban’s takeover in Afghanistan Hundreds of thousands In order to flee to neighboring countries, the EU-still failing to manage Syrian refugee crisis in 2015 – Prepare for the new influx of refugees.
Feltrinska urged Warsaw to prepare to accept refugees fleeing countries hit by the crisis, “Don’t close the borders or build fences, because we [saw] In 2015, this kind of politics did not change the number of people trying to travel to Europe.”
However, during a visit to the border last week, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki took a firm stand, accusing the Belarusian regime of exploiting refugees and insisting: “Poland must protect its borders.”
“I really sympathize with immigrants who are in extremely difficult circumstances, but it should be made clear that they are a political tool,” Morawiecki said.
Belarus denies sending refugees to the border. In May, Lukashenko Tell the EU If it imposes new sanctions, it will discover more “drugs and immigration” that his country has stopped.
