The French newspaper "Le Monde" said that migration pressure on the border between Poland and Lithuania has continued to increase since the government of Alexander Lukashenko - in the middle of last summer - organized a transport channel for migrants from the Middle East and Africa through Minsk, the capital of Belarus, so that the Polish and Lithuanian authorities The European is talking about a "war" being waged against the European Union.

In his report to the newspaper, Jakub Iwanyuk - its special envoy in Poland - talks about hundreds of migrants wandering in the forest for fear of return operations and threats from border guards, citing the example of Agar (a pseudonym for a Syrian refugee) who spoke to him as he walked in the courtyard of a homeless shelter in the center of the Polish city of Bialystok Located 50 kilometers from Belarus, he said, "You have to go to the border, terrible things happen there. Many people are in pain and need help. You have to help them."

The reporter describes Ajar, 36, that he and his wife and two children are among the lucky ones among a small minority of immigrants, who managed to slip through the cracks of the border nets, which some Arab social networks began to say is more difficult "than the road across the Mediterranean."

In the woods without food

"We realize that we are pawns in a political war, but we prefer this war and living between two countries, to a real war and living between bullets," says this merchant and former professor of psychology at the University of Aleppo. He adds - speaking excellent English - that he left Qamishli 3 weeks ago, relying on Proposals teeming with social networks call for him to go to the European Union via Belarus, on a trip to Minsk, which will cost him 4 thousand dollars per person.

And Ajar's journey - as he described it - from Erbil via Dubai was full of people in the same situation, "As soon as we arrived in Minsk, we were picked up and put in a 13-storey hotel almost full," then everyone reached the border in taxis.


After 3 days of aimless hovering with his family, Ajar decided to contact Belarusian smugglers, who, he says, transported them in a military truck to a river they cut on a boat, for 10 hours through the swamps, using the GPS on the phone.

"The jungle is full of men, families and children," Agar says. "Some spend more than two weeks there, without water or food. They were forced across the border by Belarusian guards and then pushed back by the Poles, stuck in freezing temperatures at night."

The Agars are picked up by Polish border guards on the side of a highway, then taken to the shelter, which makes them the lucky ones, because 90% of detainees - regardless of their nationality - are brought back to the border by truck and left in the middle of the woods, in returns illegal under the law. International, but it is widely practiced on the borders of the European Union, and publicly authorized by a law passed by the Polish parliament.

The reporter explained that the Polish border guards count daily between 500 and 900 attempts to cross the border, and some migrants may be rejected 7 or 8 consecutive times because they cannot return to Belarus, and some testimonies mentioned that a Belarusian guard went to the extent of threatening to open fire.

The director of the accommodation center in Bialystok - who asked not to be named - says that they encourage people to apply for asylum in Poland, but people are constantly refused.

Nobody wants to stay here.” Even Agar is still evasive, saying he had family in Germany that arrived during the first waves of immigration.

humanitarian crisis

On the Polish side, the territory along the border with Belarus has become a lawless area since the declaration of a state of emergency at the beginning of last September, and NGOs or the media no longer have the right to enter, but the Frontier Group is seeking To provide first aid to refugees outside the restricted area.

"We are in a humanitarian crisis situation here, and the Polish authorities must allow international NGOs to provide assistance as soon as possible. As temperatures drop we fear a massacre," says Ayo Luce, a spokesman for the Frontier Group.

He continues, "We constantly receive distress messages: "Help us, we are dying!", then activists have to walk sometimes for more than 3 hours in the forest, without lights, avoiding the border guards. We try to get the refugees to sign powers of attorney to represent them legally in their asylum application. But the authorities These documents are systematically ignored and people are deported."

On the other hand, as a reporter for the newspaper "Le Monde" says, activists praise the solidarity of the local population and the abundance of donations they receive.

Anna Alboth - from the minority rights group - has extensive experience helping refugees in Greece, Turkey and on the Balkan route, and says that she and her colleagues arrived at a site where it was reported that refugees were in a miserable situation, carrying food and dry clothes, and that they found people among them feeling helpless. deep and dread.

Anna Alboth says that she expects - amid this infernal game between the Belarusian and Polish guards - that the most likely scenario will be the establishment of a refugee camp in the restricted area about 40 meters wide between the two borders, but the weather is getting harsh and time is running out, according to the reporter.