Refugee dispute: stranded between Poland and Belarus

The refugee dispute between the EU and Belarus is also making itself felt in Poland. A group of refugees has been stuck at the border for a good two weeks and can neither go back nor forward.

There is still a stalemate on the border between Belarus and Poland. A group of Afghan refugees has been camping there in the open field near the village of Usnarz Gorny for around two weeks. Marcin Kusy, a representative of the independent ombudsman elected by the Polish parliament, was there: “We managed to talk to the people. There are currently 32 people in the camp, including five women, including a 15th Year old girl. ”

The people are in a serious psychological condition. “They got bread from the Belarusian side. They get the water to drink from a nearby river.”

The refugees have got caught between all fronts. At times the term “no man’s land” was used in the Polish media – in fact, people are still on the territory of Belarus. They are prevented from moving on by an armed group of Polish border guards.

Targeted towards the EU?

For some time now there have been problems in Poland and the Baltic States with migrants from the Middle East, who are apparently being smuggled into EU territory by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has been finding clear words on this issue for days: “Lukashenko is instrumentalizing the people. It is an attempt to trigger a major European migration crisis. But Poland is now building a dam against these provocations and behaviors.” Lukashenko’s regime had chosen the wrong border because the Polish border was well protected. The border guards also emphasize that, after all, they also have to guard an external border of the EU.

That is why the words are followed by deeds – the construction of a two and a half meter high fence on the 418 kilometer long border with Belarus has begun. “We protect our border in the right way, but at the same time we know that these people need support on the other side,” said Morawiecki. “That’s why we sent a van with relief supplies that is waiting at the border. We are counting on the Belarusian side to come to their senses.”

Belarus does not let relief supplies through

The truck mentioned by the Prime Minister also has tents and blankets – because the temperatures drop on the border in late summer nights. But the Belarusian side does not allow the delivery to pass.

The conservative newspaper “Rzeczpospolita” writes that one should not turn a blind eye to the threat of mass migration. Walls and barbed wire are symbols of bondage – which in Poland evoke bad memories of the past.

The left-liberal “Gazeta Wyborcza” speaks of malicious satisfaction and racist tones with which the government is presenting barbed wire and the next few meters of the border fence.