Poland announced on Wednesday that it had pushed back hundreds of immigrants who were trying to enter its territory through the Belarusian border. Polish leaders, specifically Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, accuse Belarus of “state terrorism” due to the incessant wave of illegal immigration from the Middle East that has settled on the borders of the two Eastern European countries.
For their part, the hundreds of immigrants who arrive at the borders have settled in what they have dubbed “La Jungla” : a kind of makeshift town in which the only source of energy is the wood from the surrounding forests, which they use to warm up given the low temperatures registered in the area, below 1ºC. Concern about the health and food situation of the nearly 2,000 immigrants who seek to enter Poland is increasing and the UN has already denounced that their “situation is intolerable.”
The immigrants, mainly ethnic Kurds, have been crowding for days in a wooded area in the eastern part of the Polish border. They endure freezing temperatures and have no greater access to food or water in the area. The only thing that separates them from entering Poland are the large barbed wire fences and an important military device that blocks their passage and repels their massive attempts to storm the border.
From Europe, they accuse the President of Belarus, Alexandr Lukashenko , an ally of Russia and Vladimir Putin, of being responsible behind the waves of immigration: they point out that they are attracting immigrants from the Middle East and then diverting them to the borders with Poland, in retaliation for the sanctions that the European Union has imposed against Belarus following the harsh crackdown carried out by the authorities after the 2020 presidential elections.
This Wednesday, Charles Michel declared in Warsaw that there were “new sanctions on the table” and the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen , said that she expected “an extension of the sanctions” early next week. “It is an attempt by an authoritarian regime to try to destabilize its democratic neighbors. And it will not succeed, “ said Von der Leyen, after meeting with US President Joe Biden in Washington.
The Twitter account @ Alphaville2021 is doing a very wide informative coverage work with photographs and videos from the very area where Kurdish immigrants who intend to enter Europe via Poland have settled.
Those Kurds at #Belarus #Poland Border, are they #Refugee or #Migrant? I will say most are Refugee. There are Migrant, but they got money take other routes, pay Smugglers, some pay up to $3000 from Minsk to Germany. If these people had money, would not be stuck here with children pic.twitter.com/S7Tg1YHXix
— Lemmy Caution (@Alphaville2021) November 10, 2021
15,000 Polish soldiers
There are migrants who have been trying to cross this border for months , but the situation worsened when on Monday there was a massive attempt to enter Poland, whose security forces forced hundreds of people to retreat. The press and humanitarian organizations cannot access the border, due to the exceptional measures decreed by the Polish government.
Images released by the authorities of the two countries show hundreds of men, women and children in tents or on the ground, grouped around bonfires made with wood from the forest, to cope with the low temperatures.
Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak explained that some “15,000 soldiers” protect the borders as well as police and border guards. His ministry also alleged that Belarusian authorities intimidate immigrants into crossing the border by force.
For its part, Minsk accuses Warsaw of cutting off these people, even using “physical violence” and “gases” and “shooting over their heads.” “I urge the States concerned to take immediate measures to deactivate and resolve this intolerable situation in accordance with their obligations under international human rights and refugee rights,” said the UN High Commissioner on Wednesday. for human rights, Michele Bachelet , in a statement.
The former Chilean president stated that “hundreds of men, women and children should not be forced to spend one more night in a frigid climate without shelter, food, water and adequate medical care.” Kyle McNally, counselor for humanitarian affairs at Doctors Without Borders (MSF) was able to meet with migrants from the Belarusian side of the border and assured that people “are desperate and their situation worsens every day.”
Belarus accuses the EU
This Wednesday, Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei insisted that the EU caused this crisis in order to impose new sanctions against his country. The UN, the EU and the United States affirm for their part that Lukashenko has generated this crisis in response to the existing sanctions , imposed after the bloody repression of the demonstrations against his re-election.
This Wednesday, acting German Chancellor Angela Merkel asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to “act” against “the instrumentalization of immigrants by the regime in Belarus,” her spokesperson Steffen Seibert said on Wednesday. Russia and Belarus reject all these reproaches and point to Western military interventions in the Middle East as the cause of these immigration flows fleeing wars.
At least ten immigrants have died in the region since the start of the crisis, of which seven from the Polish side, according to the Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza. On Thursday, the Security Council will meet behind closed doors to discuss this situation on the border with Poland.
