Amid an ongoing surge in crossings from Belarus into Poland, the Polish border guard has published photos from the phones of some of those detained. It says these show that they travel to Minsk “as tourists” and are then transported to the border, where they try to illegally cross into the EU.
While NGOs and activists agree that Belarus is facilitating the passage of such people, they say that many are asylum seekers who are being illegitimately denied entry to Poland, and in some cases even pushed back across the border. Today, another border crosser died in Poland, the fifth in the last week.
For an in-depth discussion of the situation, see our @notesfrompoland explainer article. https://t.co/zrTYXjbiUF
— Stanley Bill (@StanleySBill) September 24, 2021
Photos published yesterday by the border guard purport to show migrants travelling by plane, visiting the Belarusian capital of Minsk, and then camped out in a forest.
“The photos discovered on the telephones of illegal immigrants show that they come to Belarus as tourists, visit the capital of this country for a few days, and are then transported to the Polish border, which they try to cross illegally,” wrote the border guard on its official Twitter account.
It added that, yesterday alone, there were 271 illegal attempts to cross the border recorded. Three Iraqi nationals were detained in Poland along with a further five people accused of organising illegal crossings.
Zdjęcia ujawnione w telefonach nielegalnych imigrantów pokazują, że na Białoruś🇧🇾 wyjeżdżają turystycznie, przez kilka dni zwiedzają stolicę tego państwa, a potem transportowani są pod polską granicę, którą próbują nielegalnie sforsować.#zgranicy pic.twitter.com/rJ8lh8mGPJ
— Straż Graniczna (@Straz_Graniczna) September 23, 2021
This month, there have already been over 4,000 attempted crossings recorded, up from 3,500 in August. By contrast, in August 2020, none were recorded. Those detained by the Polish authorities are nationals of a variety of countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
As the weather worsens, people on both sides of the border are facing ever more difficult conditions. Last weekend, the dead bodies of four border crossers were discovered on Polish territory. Today, the border guard confirmed that another man, an Iraqi, had died.
The Belarusian border guard has also accused Poland of dragging one dead body back across the border. The Polish authorities deny this, saying that they spotted the group on the other side of the border and informed their Belarusian counterparts.
Last weekend, the Polish authorities found four dead bodies near the border with Belarus, where a record number of illegal crossings had been attempted https://t.co/fzY2l4srG9
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) September 24, 2021
“Now Belarusian media are trying to slander the Polish border guard, saying they dragged the corpse,” said Tomasz Praga, the commander of Poland’s border guard, quoted by Onet. “I want to make it very clear: this is a lie.”
“We are trying to help all the illegal migrants who have crossed into Poland and were found it time,” announced Poland’s prime minister, Matusz Morawiecki, today. “We want everyone to be treated with dignity.”
Independent verification of the situation at the border has been made almost impossible due to Poland’s president introducing a state of emergency there at the request of the government. That bars non-resident civilians, including journalists and NGOs, from visiting the area.
Main image credit: Straż Graniczna/Twitter
Agnieszka Wądołowska is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She has previously worked for Gazeta.pl and Tokfm.pl and contributed to Gazeta Wyborcza, Wysokie Obcasy, Duży Format, Midrasz and Kultura Liberalna
