Poland-Belarus: Refugees talk of 'unimaginable suffering' on border

Eighteen days of “inhumanity” is how Hamza described what he skilled on the gates of the European Union. The 25-year-old Syrian was nonetheless in shock when he despatched his testimony by WhatsApp to Center East Eye.

“It was horrible, unimaginable struggling,” says Hamza. “With my mates, we wished for loss of life. We wandered on this forest. With out meals, with out water. We suffered beatings, humiliations. We’re traumatised.”

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Together with two mates, Hamza thought he could possibly be in Germany inside just a few days of leaving Syria. On 15 October they boarded a flight to Minsk, the Belarusian capital, from Damascus, the place they confronted being conscripted into President Bashar al-Assad’s military.

Hamza, Abdallah, and Mazen all had visas issued in Syria by the Belarusian authorities within the capital. Every of them paid $5,300 to a individuals smuggler who was alleged to organise their journey from Minsk to Germany.

However nothing went as deliberate. As soon as they arrived in Minsk, the three younger males discovered themselves stranded on the Belarus-Poland border, pawns in a diplomatic spat.

A political software

Greater than 2,000 individuals, together with Iraqis, Syrians, Afghans, and Iranians, have been caught between the 2 nations in freezing temperatures for weeks. Not less than 10 individuals have died there since August.

The disaster is, partially, the results of a number of months of deteriorating relations between Minsk and Brussels, the de facto capital of the EU.

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In the beginning of July, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko warned that he would enable refugees to come back by his nation.

“We is not going to detain anybody. We aren’t their ultimate vacation spot, in spite of everything,” he stated in statements at the moment. “They’re headed to enlightened, heat, cosy Europe.”

He denies opening the brand new route in retaliation for EU sanctions imposed on Belarus following his authorities’s repression of opposition protests final spring.

On 8 November the President of the European Fee (EC), Ursula von der Leyen, referred to as on EU member states to impose additional sanctions in opposition to Minsk, which the EC accused of exploiting migrants as a software in opposition to Europe.

On Thursday, Lukashenko stated he would reply to any new European sanctions. 

“We’re heating Europe, and they’re threatening to shut the border. And what would occur if we minimize off the pure gasoline that goes there? So, I’d advise Polish leaders, Lithuanians, and different fools to suppose earlier than they communicate,” he stated.

The UN Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, has referred to as for “speedy” humanitarian entry to the world.

After being deserted by their first smuggler on 17 October, Hamza and his two mates managed to succeed in the Polish border, guided by males primarily based in Belarus, Greece, and Turkey.  After three days of wandering within the Podlaskie forest, they had been arrested by the Belarusian military. The troopers beat them earlier than taking them to a detention camp.

‘The lights of the Polish military had been directed at us. They knew the place we had been… as if each nations had been taking part in a sport, and we had been the toy’

– Mazen, refugee

“There have been many kids in that camp,” stated 32-year-old Abdallah. “There have been many ladies; some had been pregnant. Folks got here from Egypt, Iran, Turkey, Iraq, and even India.”

After darkish, Belarusian troopers was smugglers, says Mazen.

“They put us in a truck. We had been 40 to 50 individuals. We could not transfer. We had been locked at midnight with out understanding the place we had been going.”

When the truck doorways opened once more to disclose a 4 metre-wide river, Belarusian troopers ordered them to cross it. The three Syrian mates, like many different individuals of their group, didn’t know methods to swim; however after being threatened, they moved into the icy water.

“The lights of the Polish military had been directed at us. They knew the place we had been… as if each nations had been taking part in a sport, and we had been the toy,” defined Mazen.

The 27-year-old was satisfied that they might not be rejected in Poland, on the opposite facet of the river. However the Polish troopers arrested them.

“They began beating us up. In English, they instructed us, ‘no Poland, return to Bielorussia!'” an area time period for Belarus, remembers Hamza, who was overwhelmed the worst of the three. “It was very violent. We did not eat or drink for 3 days. My physique was exhausted; it was insufferable. For Poland and Belarus, we’re like animals.” 

‘We drank water from the swamps’

Lastly, the Polish troopers pushed the refugees again into the icy water. They stayed there for half an hour.

“The tone rose between the 2 armies. They hurled insults at one another,” defined Mazen. “The Belarusian navy was firing bullets into the air. The Poles had been doing the identical, whereas we had been within the center. Some refugees fainted. We held them up in order that they wouldn’t drown within the river.”

Belarusian troopers ended up permitting the refugees to come back again. They once more used power to get the three Syrians – and your entire group of refugees – right into a truck. The truck stopped in one other camp in the course of the forest.

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“We drank water from the swamps,” defined Abdallah. “We needed to drink so we wouldn’t die of thirst. We ate grass. We didn’t have any meals left.”   

Looking for assist, Hamza stated they contacted a humanitarian organisation in Belarus, which tried to assist, however they could not attain the group.

After every week, the Belarusian troopers tried to deliver Hamza and his mates again, to push them to cross the frozen river once more, however they managed to flee.

They begged a driver to take them again to Minsk, the place they remained hidden for an additional week. And on Wednesday 10 November, the three Syrians managed to depart Belarus.

One stays significantly injured from the ordeal.

Deserted

Hundreds of individuals are nonetheless trapped between Belarus and Poland. In pictures which have emerged over the previous few days, a mass of individuals, together with younger kids, will be seen behind barbed wire fences within the freezing chilly.

“There are various individuals on this forest… We have now to assist them. What is occurring is shameful. It’s shameful.”

After 18 days spent within the Podlaskie forest, Abdallah stays scarred.

“We felt deserted like items that had been provided to be offered. No one cares if individuals die there or not,” he defined. “I am positive there are 30 to 40 individuals who have misplaced their lives in that space, perhaps extra.”