Location on the Belarusian border: “Worse than you can imagine”

Thousands of people remain between Belarus and Poland. Those who make it across the border are emaciated and weak. Many are being sent back. Polish aid organizations report dramatic conditions.

Rescue operation on Sunday evening in Topczykaly, Poland, a few kilometers inland from the Belarusian border: An aid organization discovered two Syrian brothers in the forest, 39 and 41 years old, barely able to say their names. The helpers cover the hypothermic men with warming rescue blankets. The photos show one of them on a stretcher, with his eyes closed, the pulse seems weak.

First save, then send back

A camera team from the Reuters news agency filmed the event. For the many reporters from all over the world, the volunteers are the bridge to the refugees in the forest who are hiding – constantly on the lookout for not being discovered and hardly trusting anyone. “We found two men in very critical condition in the forest,” said an activist to the Reuters reporter team. “They couldn’t talk to us, so we called an ambulance.”

The men are loaded into the car and come to the hospital, promises a paramedic. In order to be brought back to Belarus, again with strength.

“Everyone just wants to survive”

The world also knows about this practice of rejections – now officially admitted – through the activists, who often follow the fate of the people from the forest and keep in touch. Magdalena Lukczak from the “Grenzgruppe” organized help from a small hotel near the border. She rushes into the woods with warm socks, water or food if she gets a tip. Or she tries, with the help of lawyers, to somehow initiate asylum proceedings in order to prevent the rejections. Sometimes it even works, for example with people from the civil war country Syria.

People from outside, who see these people as a crowd, do not understand the concrete stories and allow everything to be talked into them. That they are dangerous, that they want social benefits, that they can simply cross the border. But when you are here you can see that it is even worse than you can imagine. Before I came here, I saw photos, heard stories. But when I came here with the concrete stories of concrete people, it was clear that it was even worse. Nobody wants social benefits. All just want to survive and go to a safe country.

The crisis at the border mobilizes the population

The migration crisis in the far north-east of Poland is mobilizing: Nationalists come together in Internet groups to discuss how the state border can best be defended against “intruders”. Others, on the other hand, ask in chats in front of the people in the forests how one can help: “You have to do something.”

The sparsely populated north-east in particular – through Lukashenko’s policy of turning his country into a smugglers’ highway, and suddenly becoming the focus of world politics – is experiencing a wave of willingness to help. In Michalowo, for example. The place became known nationwide because of the “Children of Michalowo”: children behind the fence of a border guard who disappeared one day. So that were also brought back to the limit, as the pushback practice is officially called.

Struggle for the sovereignty of interpretation

Michalowo was a disaster in the struggle for the sovereignty of opinion and emotion for the Polish government. Donations in kind were received in rows in Michalowo, and the city had a fire station converted into a warming room.

“For the media, the crisis began with the images of migrant groups on the border. For us earlier, because the first migrants came earlier and received help from our residents. We also appealed to people to help,” says Konrad Sikora, Vice Mayor the city. “And when the weather got worse and we realized that the people out there were freezing, we immediately set up our fire station.”

In Michalowo there has always been a multicultural society and a tradition of many denominations, says Sikora. Jews, Germans, Protestants and Catholics lived here, and they have lived together to this day. Nobody looks angry at the other here. “Maybe we differ from the rest of Poland through multiculturalism,” says Sikora. “It’s normal for us.”

Lots of volunteers

Orthodoxy also plays a role in this region. Many families have experienced persecution and flight themselves. In addition to local residents, there are also supraregional groups who travel with volunteers. Like the organization “Doctors at the Border”, which had an ambulance on duty.

They stopped after attacking the group’s cars. But there is already a new initiative by medical professionals who are now ready to provide first aid. The group is called “Polish International Aid” and is one of the largest non-governmental organizations in the country.