Poles will elect a new parliament on Sunday. The incumbent PiS government is fueling fear of refugees and preventing migrants from crossing its eastern border – if necessary with violence. On the way at the border fence with Belarus.–
There are seven fresh graves on the edge of the Bohoniki cemetery. Simple elevations made of earth and field stones, lovingly decorated with artificial flowers and grave markers. It smells of pine trees that grow here in the cemetery and rustle in the wind.
“Ahmad came from Syria, he was only 19,” says Aleksander Bazarewicz, the imam in Bohoniki. “He was the first refugee we buried here. He drowned in the border river.” Bohoniki, just 20 kilometers from the border with Belarus, is a Tatar village: The Tatars were founded over 340 years ago by the Polish King John III. Sobieski settled in north-eastern Poland – and have preserved Islam as their denomination.