A thick fog envelops the entire border area, Thursday, November 11 in the morning. Poland has sealed its border with Belarus and the entire area is off-limits, both to aid workers and journalists. On the Polish side, in Sokolka, the police are everywhere, and migrants are invisible. They are there however, a handful of kilometers to the East, more than 2,000 migrants, especially Iraqi Kurds, caught in the grip at the gates of Europe but out of reach of the media and NGOs. And even the High Commissioner for Refugees which has no access to the border. It is unprecedented, in fact: Poland has declared a state of emergency in the area and we cannot approach within three kilometers. This 400-kilometer-long border is a no-go zone.
>> Migrants: we explain to you why the situation is explosive on the border between Poland and Belarus
To come to the aid of migrants, NGOs must wait until they alone manage to cross in secret, at night, these barbed wire, this thick forest, this border. Even after donating tea and warm clothes, NGOs are often helpless. Like Anna Chmeliewska, a volunteer. “We cannot give them any advice. When we call the border guards, they can either take them to the post or deport them to Belarus. We cannot guarantee them that they will be able to apply for asylum here in Poland. . It’s completely erratic “, she says. The same week, Anna recounts having rescued two families. One was able to apply for asylum, the other was sent back to Belarus, at the mercy of the regime’s police. Lukashenko.
Images show these migrants, men, women, children, some even trying to force barbed wire barriers. These are images shot either by Polish border guards or Belarusian police. Images sometimes taken from the army helicopters which constantly fly over this area and which serve the propaganda of one or the other camp. Because if the Belarusian regime instrumentalizes migrants against Europe, Poland, she takes the opportunity to close its border and repel asylum seekers illegally.
It is necessary, according to the volunteer Anna chmeliewska forget about politics. “I want to tell European countries that this crisis we have here is a humanitarian crisis. We have to shout it out loud: it is a humanitarian crisis and we have to treat it as such.” But for now, the distress is far from the cameras and far from the eyes of European leaders.
This region of eastern Poland has been won over by PiS, the ruling party that stirs up virulent anti-migrant rhetoric. The government reports on television that the migrants are terrorists, will come and steal the inhabitants, that they are pedophiles.
Many are therefore afraid. However, in Michalowo, a village a few kilometers from the border run by the opposition, the population is mobilizing. The fire station has turned into a collection center. This November 11, a national holiday in Poland, families come to provide help for migrants. This is particularly the case of Mernamen, 14 years old. He drove an hour with his parents, their vehicle is full of bags. “We have clothes, food, he explains. These people are really very poor, they are fleeing their country and they need help, our help. These are our old clothes. We bought food, bread, things just so they could survive. I hope that this help will really go to the migrants, but I am not sure. The way these people are treated is horrible. “
The stories are multiplying in fact of police brutality, particularly on the Belarusian side. And we do not know how many people have actually died. There are a lot of families with very young children, pregnant women.