Poland detains gang accused of kidnapping African migrants for ransom

Keep our news free from ads and paywalls by making a donation to support our work!

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Polish police have dismantled a gang they say was responsible for helping African migrants illegally enter Poland and Latvia from Belarus then kidnapping them and sending ransom requests to their families.

Four people have been detained, with Polish media reporting that they are Ukrainian citizens. The suspects were identified after two of their alleged victims escaped and were found running naked through a Polish city.

In a statement announcing the arrests on Wednesday, the police revealed that they became aware of the operation in mid-June when an aid organisation reported a message it had received via an online messaging service.

The correspondence indicated that two Ethiopian citizens had been kidnapped and were being held for ransom somewhere in Poland. The perpetrators wrote that, if their demands were not met, the captives would be murdered and their organs sold.

Attached to the message were photographs of naked, tied-up men, as well as screenshots of conversations in Russian demanding a ransom be paid in cryptocurrencies. The demand had been sent to the family of one of the kidnapped men.

On 14 June, the captives managed to escape and were noticed by a member of the public, who called the emergency services. The men were provided with assistance and then taken into the custody of the border guard.

Videos and photos of the pair – naked and with signs of having been held captive – running through the streets of Lubin, a city in western Poland, later appeared on social media.

At the time, the reasons behind their unusual actions and appearance were not known. Some social media users exploited the images as evidence of the alleged problems caused by non-European immigrants in Poland.

Among them was Patryk Jaki, a deputy leader of the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS), Poland’s main opposition party.

Jaki wrote on social media that the fact there were “naked Ethiopians running through the street” showed that “in Poland things are happening that have never happened before”. He warned that Poles must bring about the end of the current government “before it is too late”.

Meanwhile, the Polish police’s Central Investigation Bureau (CBŚP) managed to identify the individuals who were likely behind the kidnapping. But, before they could be detained, the suspects left Poland and entered neighbouring Lithuania.

From there, they reportedly travelled on to Latvia, where they kidnapped three citizens of Mali, one of whom was tied to a tree and beaten. A video of the abuse was sent to the migrant’s family with a demand for ransom.

On 25 June, the three suspects returned to Poland, where they were detained by counter-terrorism officers while travelling by car. A fourth suspect was detained separately on suspicion of helping to smuggle the kidnapped migrants.

Searches of the suspects’ vehicles uncovered “items resembling firearms, balaclavas, adhesive tapes and mobile phones”, including one that belonged to one of the Malian victims, say the police.

The suspects have been charged by prosecutors with participation in an organised criminal group, kidnapping for ransom, and organising illegal border crossings. Three of them have been placed in pretrial detention.

The police have not identified the suspects, but Polish broadcaster RMF reports, based on sources, that all four are Ukrainian citizens, ranging in age from 20 to 40, who were legally residing in Poland. They were reportedly involved in smuggling migrants into the European Union from Belarus.

Rzeczpospolita, a leading daily newspaper, name the quartet as Vladyslav M., Oleksandr S., Yelizaveta S., and Mykhalio R., with surnames hidden in accordance with Polish privacy law.

Since 2021, tens of thousands of migrants and asylum seekers – mainly from Asia and Africa – have tried to enter Poland and the Baltic states from Belarus, with the encouragement and assistance of the Belarusian authorities.

Last year, Poland charged 36 members of a gang allegedly responsible for smuggling thousands of migrants across the border from Belarus and onwards to Germany and for financing terrorism. The group included Polish, Ukrainian, Iraqi and Belarusian citizens.

In May this year, Poland’s government launched an information campaign in seven African and Asian countries warning potential migrants not to trust the smugglers promising to help them get into Europe via Belarus.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: Policja Polska (under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 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.