Polish authorities have found the body of a 19-year-old Syrian who drowned in the Bug river. A fellow Syrian with whom he tried to cross the border from Belarus into Poland says they were pushed into the river by Belarusian guards, despite not being able to swim.
The discovery brings the known death toll to seven on the Polish side of the border during the recent surge in crossings by people from the Middle East. Most have died of hypothermia and exhaustion amid worsening weather conditions, with temperatures often dropping below zero at night.
A search had been underway for the Syrian since Tuesday morning, after his colleague had managed to make it across the river, which runs along the Polish-Belarusian border. His body was retrieved near the village of Woroblin around 2 p.m. on Wednesday by divers working with the local fire service.
“His identity was confirmed by the other young man with whom he tried to illegally cross the Bug a day earlier,” said Andrzej Fijołek, the regional police spokesman, quoted by the Polish Press Agency (PAP). “We also found documents on the body. So there is no doubt that [it is him].”
The other Syrian man, a 22-year-old found by border guards in the area on Tuesday, said that he had been pushed into the river, which forms part of the border between the two countries, by Belarusian guards, probably with another man. “Unfortunately, neither of them could swim,” said Fijołek.
Police and prosecutors are now investigating the death, said Dariusz Sienicki of the Bug River Border Guard Unit. He added that the rescued man did not want to apply for international protection in Poland and is now in the care of an NGO. “He will stay in Poland until Syria is recognised as a safe country,” he said.
Belarus has orchestrated attempts by thousands of people to cross the border in recent months. Additional flights to Minsk from the Middle East have been arranged, and migrants are then taken to the border and helped to cross. There have been multiple reports of abusive behaviour by Belarusian guards.
The governments of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, which border Belarus, as well as the European Commission have condemned the practice, saying that it endangers the lives of the migrants and supports criminal smuggling gangs.
By comparison, in the whole of last year there were only 120 attempted illegal crossings recorded at the border from Belarus into Poland https://t.co/JeE3XyGQn3
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) October 20, 2021
Poland’s border guard this week said that they had prevented 21,000 attempts to cross into Poland this year up to 13 October, with 10,000 in October alone. Among the almost 2,000 people detained in Poland after crossing, the largest national group are Iraqis (1,004 people), followed by Afghans (428) and Syrians (121).
Polish authorities have noted that the majority of people they have detained for illegally crossing do not apply for international protection. Many instead are seeking to travel on to Germany.
Germany’s interior minister this week thanked Poland for its efforts to protect the EU’s eastern frontier. He also called for strengthened patrols on the Polish-German border, where thousands have crossed into Germany from Belarus via Poland.
Main image credit: jarko7/Pixabay
Maria Wilczek is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She is a regular writer for The Times, The Economist and Al Jazeera English, and has also featured in Foreign Policy, Politico Europe, The Spectator and Gazeta Wyborcza.
