Body of Syrian found in Poland near Belarus border amid migration surge

The body of a Syrian man has been found in Poland near the border with Belarus, where thousands of people from the Middle East, Asia and Africa have been seeking to cross into the European Union. It is the sixth recorded death on the Polish side of the border in the last month.

The grim discovery was made near the village of Klimówka by a police helicopter crew, who spotted the body yesterday while patrolling the area along the border that was placed under a state of emergency by the Polish authorities at the start of last month.

“Documents indicate that he is a 24-year-old citizen of Syria,” announced police spokesman Tomasz Krupa today. Papers found on the body also show that he had been in Belarus since mid-September.

The Belarusian authorities have encouraged migrants to travel to Minsk, from where it facilitates their passage to and across the border into Poland, as well as fellow EU states Lithuania and Latvia.

The governments of those countries, as well as the European Commission, have condemned the practice, saying that it endangers the lives of the migrants and supports criminal smuggling gangs.

In response to the discovery of the dead body, Poland’s foreign ministry today summoned the Belarusian chargé d’affaires, Aleksandr Czasnouski, to discuss “the constantly deteriorating situation on the border” and the “threats and risks posed by the Belarusian state”.

Afterwards, Polish foreign ministry spokesman Łukasz Jasina told TVP that Czasnouski had denied Belarus was taking actions aimed against Poland. The chargé d’affaires had also refused to comment on Belarus’s rejection of a Polish convoy containing humanitarian aid for migrants, said Jasina.

The Polish government has itself faced criticism from human rights groups and parts of the domestic political opposition for its actions at the border, which have included erecting a razor-wire fence and sending migrants back into Belarus after they have crossed.

The critics argue that, even if the migrants are being used by Belarus, Poland has a moral duty – and often a legal obligation – to care for them. The Polish government says that its duty is to protect the border from illegal crossings. It claims to be following relevant laws and providing medical and humanitarian aid.

Since the start of August, Poland’s border guard has prevented over 10,000 attempts to illegally cross the border from Belarus and has detained a further 1,500 people after crossing, reports the Polish Press Agency (PAP).

Thousands more have managed to pass through Poland undetected, with the German police yesterday announcing that over 4,300 illegal migrants – largely from Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Iran – have entered Germany from Belarus via Poland since August, reports the German Press Agency (dpa).

The situation on Poland’s border is, however, difficult to verify independently as the state of emergency declared there bans non-resident civilians, including the media and NGOs, from entering the area. Critics say the government’s aim is to prevent scrutiny of its actions there.

Main image credit: Adam Guz/KPRM (under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Daniel Tilles

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.