Indians attacked in Polish border town as police warn of “false information” about refugee crimes

Three Indians were attacked last night in a Polish town close to the border where refugees from Ukraine have been arriving in large numbers. Nationalist football hooligans have come to the town to campaign against non-white people being let into Poland.

But the police have warned that such groups are spreading false information about crimes being committed by people who have fled from Ukraine, and experts suggest that they could be part of a Russian disinformation campaign.

The town of Przemyśl, around 12 kilometres from the border with Ukraine, has become a major reception point for refugees arriving by train or via the nearby border crossing at Medyka.

Polish authorities, as well as a range of charities, NGOs and individuals, have been providing support, supplies and temporary accommodation to those arriving in the town, who have included a significant number of non-Ukrainians, notably African and Asian students.

Despite widespread reports that Poland has been turning away or otherwise mistreating non-white refugees, evidence has shown that such situations have happened on the Ukrainian side of the border, not in Poland. The Polish authorities have emphasised that they treat all those arriving equally.

Meanwhile, some groups of football hooligans – who in Poland often have nationalist sympathies – have been arriving in Przemyśl to oppose the reception of non-white refugees.

One Facebook group, titled Przemyśl Always Polish (Przemyśl Zawsze Polski), yesterday spread claims that “economic migrants from the Middle East” were committing crimes in the town, including a knife attack on a young woman and “numerous thefts” from shops.

It said that fans from five local football clubs had been “conducting an action to clean the town” and shared a video of one group carrying out a “civic patrol” by following a black man through the streets.

One popular right-wing Twitter account posted videos showing football fans “chasing black immigrants who are attacking women in Przemyśl”.

Their actions received support from some members of the far-right Confederation (Konfederacja) party, one of whose leaders and MPs, Grzegorz Braun, tweeted that he “supports civic patrols”.

However, the provincial police headquarters yesterday evening warned that claims of serious crimes being committed in Przemyśl are false. “The police have not recorded an increased number of crimes in connection with the situation at the border.”

Later in the evening, the police also confirmed reports that three Indians had been beaten up by a group of five men in Przemyśl, leaving one of them hospitalised, reports the Polish Press Agency (PAP).

The incident had earlier been reported by Gazeta Wyborcza, one of whose photojournalists was on the scene. He was told by a local Polish volunteer, who had tried to help the Indians escape, that they were attacked by men with baseball bats and bottles.

The newspaper also reported that riot police were deployed in Przemyśl after groups of men dressed in black arrived chanting “Przemyśl always Polish”.

One Polish commentator, Jan J. Zygmuntowski, suggested that what has been happening in Przemyśl is part of “an information war” aimed at “destabilising Poland”.

“Claims about a ‘threat’ from refugees, a few unclear clips, scaring with [claims about] ‘blacks’. Meanwhile, nationalists/football fans are attacking people in Przemyśl and escalating the chaos. Let’s be vigilant because the saboteurs are already working,” tweeted Zygmuntowski.

Similar claims were made by Beata Górka-Winter, a Polish security expert, who suggested that “Russian agencies are spreading rumours about immigrants ‘flooding’ Poland”, which are then mobilising football fans.

Main image credit: Lukasz Cynalewski / Agencja Wyborcza.pl

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.