Refugees between Belarus and Poland: “Extremely Inhuman Conditions”

The UN criticizes around 30 refugees camped on the Polish border with Belarus in inhumane conditions. The Polish government does not even let helpers near the migrants.

Mustag Achmadi should get up, calls a Polish lawyer over to the group of migrants who have been camping there for days, wedged between Polish border guards on one side and Belarusian uniformed men on the other. She further explains that she has the power to apply for international protection for him. The man in the group confirms that.

This scene in the presence of Polish border guards is now three weeks ago – without the Polish authorities having checked whether Achmadi and the others from the camp, who unmistakably asked for it, are in need of protection. A breach of international and Polish law, complain about UN representatives. On the other hand, it is said from Warsaw that the Polish and thus the EU external border are protected from illegal immigrants. In addition, about 30 people camped on Belarusian territory.

Lukashenko presents himself as a philanthropist

He cannot check that, says Rafal Kostrzynski from the Polish branch of the UN refugee agency UNHCR. But it is not relevant. “Whether they are on the Belarusian side or the Polish side is irrelevant in view of the fact that they are on the Polish border, want to go to Poland and clearly express their will to obtain refugee status. It is also the case that they have been for four weeks being held in extremely inhumane circumstances, “says Kostrzynski.

The temperatures in the camp are a few degrees above zero, there is no access to sanitary facilities, running water and warm places. The fact that something is known at all about the people, for example that they are supposed to come from Afghanistan, is thanks to the UNHCR’s brief opportunity to visit from Belarus – and the work of aid organizations, which also brought the lawyer to the border.

In the meantime, the leadership in Minsk left the Red Cross with aid deliveries to the migrants: The Lukashenko regime presented itself as a philanthropist on state television. Unlike Poland, you help, although according to this reading the camp is already on Polish soil.

Journalists are no longer allowed to go to the border

According to the Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, Belarus drove people towards the border in the first place – out of revenge for sanctions. “Lukashenko uses the people as an instrument for his foreign policy. This is an attempt to trigger a major European migration crisis,” says Morawiecki.

But he chose the wrong border, because the Polish border is well protected – in both directions: Polish doctors tried several times to be admitted to the refugees – in vain. And the fact that not even UN representatives were allowed access is unusual even in an international comparison.

“The situation is completely irregular and illegal, unfortunately,” says Kostrzynski. “And we observe with concern that the rules of the state of emergency make access even more difficult and impossible. We are trying to gain access at least for ourselves and for a few other organizations.”

Journalists, for example, are now only allowed to approach the border within three kilometers due to the state of emergency. Proceedings have now been initiated against a team that reported from there anyway.

“What I saw exceeded my worst fears”

When access to the border area was still possible, the opposition politician Francisek Sterczewski claims to have stayed there for eight days. According to him, there were illegal “pushbacks”, ie the pushing back of migrants who had already arrived in Poland in the direction of Belarus. “What I saw exceeded my worst fears. It is shameful for our state that we are not able to help 32 people,” says Sterczewski.

At first these people were shielded behind vehicles and tent walls; Engine noise was supposed to drown them out, communication was made more difficult. The government’s aim is to anonymize the people, to hide their faces in order to say that these are not people who deserve our help. But these are real people with real stories.

Among them was a seriously ill 53-year-old woman who fled the Taliban with children and a cat, said the parliamentarian.

From a political point of view, however, the conflict seems to be of greater benefit to the government, based on the latest polls. The liberal citizens’ platform, which recently had not yet clearly positioned itself to vote on the state of emergency, has recently lost a little in surveys. The camp of the ruling PiS party and a group even further to the right, however, had gained approval.