A group of around 30 people – and one cat – from Afghanistan remain stuck in limbo on the Polish-Belarusian border, amid a standoff between security services from the two countries. Their fate has captivated public attention in Poland, as well as becoming a source of political conflict.
The migrants, who have set up a makeshift camp, arrived amid a recent surge in the number of people – mostly from Iraq and Afghanistan – seeking to cross the border illegally. Poland and the European Union have accused Belarus of deliberately facilitating such crossings.
Polish and Belarusian security services face off, with the group of Afghans between them.
According to the Ocalenie Foundation, a Polish NGO that helps refugees and other migrants, the group of 32 Afghans want to submit asylum claims in Poland. However, Polish border guards have refused to let them into the country, while Belarusian security officers are refusing to let them turn back.
“They have been on the border for 11 days, travelling for 25,” tweeted the foundation on Thursday morning. “They have not eaten or drunk anything for 24 hours.”
Later that day, a left-wing MP, Maciej Konieczny, visited the site. Thanks to his parliamentary immunity, he was able to bring food and sleeping bags to the group. He told news website Onet that the Afghans had been “eating plants and drinking water from lakes and rivers”.
Poland’s national-conservative government, however, has remained adamant that the border must be protected from illegal crossings. Earlier this week, a deputy prime minister declared that “Poland defended itself from refugees in 2015 and will do so again”.
Yesterday, a spokeswoman for the the Polish border guard said that the Belarusian authorities had taken in some people from the group, including women and children. “Nobody can cross the border, because it would be a violation of the law,” she added, quoted by TVP.
MP Maciej Konieczny used his parliamentary immunity to bring food and sleeping bags to the Afghans.
The defence minister has dispatched soldiers to the border, where they are erecting 150 kilometres of barbed wire fencing. “Letting these people into Poland is not the solution,” said the prime minister on Thursday, saying that doing so would only encourage Belarus to further “instrumentalise migrants”.
The same day, the European Commission, speaking to the Polish Press Agency (PAP), likewise declared that “the instrumental use of migrants by Belarus for political purposes shows that the Lukashenko regime knows no bounds in exploiting their suffering”.
Media have gathered at the site alongside Polish border guards.
A Polish deputy interior minister, Maciej Wąsik, also claimed that the group of Afghans were not genuine refugees, but were simply seeking a life of “luxury” in the EU. “They are mostly young men, who are well dressed, with no indication that they are in danger,” he told TVN24.
Wąsik has previously accused Minsk of using migrants as “living weapons” in a “hybrid war” against Poland and Lithuania, who have supported the Belarusian democratic opposition.
The Ocalenie Foundation, however, notes that there are women among the group, including a 15-year-old girl, as well as people in need of medical care. The NGO, as well as some left-wing and liberal politicians, have called on the Afghans to be admitted to Poland.
The foundation also reported that an unusual passenger had accompanied the group: a cat, which had come with them all the way from Afghanistan. “The women said they wanted to leave him behind, but he kept on following them, so in the end they brought him with them,” wrote the NGO.
Uchodźcy przy polskiej granicy. Wolontariusze opisali wzruszającą historię wiernego kotka: „"Ciągle za nimi szedł. W końcu się ugięły i zabrały go ze sobą" – opisują wolontariusze Fundacji Ocalenie” https://t.co/10Ibevy3Ew
— Bertold Kittel (@Bertold_K) August 19, 2021
All images copyright of Exen
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
