From Iraqi Kurdistan to the Belarusian trap: "We are surviving without moving forward"

A crowd of migrants crowd around a humanitarian aid truck at the Belarusian-Poland border near Grodno, Belarus on Friday, November 12, 2021. AP - Ramil Nasibulin

Text by: Oriane Verdier Follow

6 mins

At the heart of a diplomatic standoff between Brussels and Minsk, more than 2,000 people are today stranded between barbed wire on the Polish border and Belarusian forces.

Much of it is Iraqi Kurdish. 

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Shaxawan is Iraqi Kurdish.

He grew up in Said Sadiq near the Iranian border.

After college finished, the young man couldn't find a job.

He wanted to get married, but without work no money, and without money no marriage.

So like many others of his generation, he turned to the only horizon bearing a little hope: Europe.  

But Shaxawan cannot swim well, he was afraid of dying at sea like some of those who attempt the long voyage through Greece.

His friends told him about this new route through Belarus.

One of them had taken it a month earlier and had arrived in Germany within a week.

There was indeed his cousin arrested by the Belarusian police with her husband and her children and whom no one has heard from anymore, but as long as he chose, he was ready to do anything to avoid the black and icy waves of the Aegean Sea. .

So Shaxawan borrowed money from around him to raise over $ 5,000.

The family and neighbors have joined together to finance this hope that has become so rare.  

On one side the barbed wire, on the other the police

A week ago, he finally arrived by plane on the European continent with almost disconcerting ease. The one whose first name means "mountain" in Kurdish affirms that he was "

 ready to walk for hours at night, to run, to hide, to cross rivers and to face the obstacles 

" which would stand in his way. But what he saw today, he had not foreseen. For a week, 

he has been stranded

between Polish barbed wire and Belarusian police. 

“ 

We are at the point of saving water and food, of surviving without moving forward,

” he tells us.

I still have a few dates and a little bread, but around me there are families of five, six people who have almost nothing left, just enough for one night. And after what are they going to eat?

 "

Several thousand people

are stranded in the middle of nature along the Polish border.

The Belarusian authorities forbid them to leave this area to buy provisions.

Sometimes a truck arrives.

 He is always accompanied by cameras, they come to film to serve the interests of the Belarusian authorities, of Putin or of I do not know who.

But in reality, the trucks are half full.

People leave empty-handed.

Me, in a week, I have not managed to catch food once.

But hey, it could be worse, without them we would have been dead for several days.

 " 

► To read also: Migrant crisis: Westerners denounce to the UN the "tactics" of Belarus

At night, Shaxawan prevents himself from sleeping for fear of freezing to death. “ 

The temperature can drop to minus seven degrees, 

” he says. Among the videos he sends us, that of a young girl in tetany, the blue face. Men and women are busy around her to try to warm her up, to help her breathe, powerless in reality.  

Iraq, for which he has a passport, announced on Friday doing everything possible to identify its nationals and repatriate those who want it gradually.

But for Shaxawan, going back is not an option.

In Kurdistan, he will never earn enough money to reimburse those who invested in his dream.

So he keeps his gaze riveted on "the great wall" formed by the

Polish forces in 

front of them day and night.

"

 Even if I am not allowed to pass here and that I am forced to return to Kurdistan, I will come back, I will try as many times as necessary 

", he assures us. 

"It is better to go and die somewhere else than to stay here" 

In Iraqi Kurdistan, despite the concerns, Hajar understands the determination of his brother Shaxawan. " 

Every Kurd who decides to go to Europe knows that terrible things are going to happen to him since he sees what happened to those who left before him,

" he said.

But, here, the two political parties which manage Kurdistan have monopolized everything. You finish your studies without finding a job, not even a food job. There is no money, no electricity, no more hope. There is no life in this country, it is better to go and die somewhere else than to stay here.

 He was able to get married and start a family.

He is a teacher, but like many civil servants, he only receives part of his salary and is very late.

His kids are the only reason he doesn't try his luck too.  

For more than ten years, the

Kurds have been demonstrating

against the authorities of the autonomous region, which they accuse of corruption.

If you are not a member of the PDK or the PUK - the two historic parties of Iraqi Kurdistan - you can no longer find a job even as a teacher,"

 continues Hajar.

 And those who are hired as civil servants are not paid anyway.

Teachers and doctors have become volunteers. 

Running away from a hopeless life

Rebwar - an assumed name to protect himself from the authorities - also has a little brother stuck in Belarus.

“ 

You know, sometimes here journalists say things and a few days later people are found dead in their homes.

 "  

► See also: Iraqi Kurdistan: concerns about serious human rights violations

The day Rebwar's brother left, the whole family accompanied him to Souleymanieh bus station. “

 In this station, almost every morning, there are families who say their farewells. They cry in such a way… No one cries that way unless they have a loved one who is about to die, 

”says Redwar. Everyone is well aware of the risk involved, but the families still encourage the candidates to leave because they cannot offer them a future on their land. 

Rebwar also received videos from his brother, and he sees them scrolling on social networks.

“ 

These images remind me of 1991 when the Kurds fled Saddam Hussein's regime to the Iranian mountains.

Pieces of bread thrown at a crowd gathered around a truck, children petrified with cold.

Today, people are not fleeing death, but a life without hope. 

"  

► See also: Syrians, Iraqis and Yemenis banned from flying to Belarus from Turkey

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