Polish-Belarusian border. “The guards are going to the L4, they are terrified of what they are told to do”
From the moment of setting up in 183 communes on the Polish-Bialystok border, journalists are not allowed to enter the border zone. Information on what is happening there comes from the inhabitants, activists who help migrants. The announcements are also published by the Border Guard.
As Micha³ Borkiewicz from the Chlebem i Sol ± Initiative, which co-creates the Granica Group, said in TOK FM, there is “from several dozen to even 200 people at the border”. – The real situation is difficult to estimate because the Border Guard provides information based on complete manipulation. She gives statistics that she prevented how many attempts to cross the borders there – from 100 to 300. (…) These are people caught in Polish forests, caught many times, so if we have (in a press release from the Border Guard) – ed.) given the number 200, probably more than half of these people had had contact with Polish services before, was on the territory of Poland, emphasized in – with Karolina Głowacka.
The practice may be illustrated by, inter alia, information provided to activists by men from the group found near Kuźnica last Monday. – These people said that any periods from the territory of Poland 21 times and they have been in these forests for several weeks. Every time the Polish Border Guard catches a few kilometers from the Polish border, they do not receive medical assistance, nor are they able to apply for (refugee) status. They are simply loaded into military trucks and taken out in the middle of the forest – said Borkiewicz.
“Many rangers are frustrated with this situation”
The activist also suggested that the Polish Border Guard was committing the destruction of disarmament to people it catches in the forests near the border with Belarus.
One of the purposes for which contacts with migrants are very difficult, even if activists meeting these people receive from the numbers of the contact niche. – Contacts are difficult. They have their phones taken, cameras destroyed, and a recharger socket. To make a Polish Border Guard. So these people can’t even call for help when someone dies. Sometimes it happens that such instances do and do happen. We are scared, winter is coming – said the guest TOK FM.
As he mentioned, initially – over a month ago, when NGO activists appeared at the border, due to the situation of people wandering in Usnarz Górny – the relations between activists and border guards looked like otherwise. – At the beginning of the cooperation, they started very well, the problems started when they started to come from the initiative “from above”. Since then, we have learned that, for example, our powers of attorney to represent (for example, people found in the forest) are invalid. Which is false and unlawful. We have not been provided with information about the detained. Complete, almost complete, at the request of – let’s not be afraid of it – superiors, that is, assessed by Borkiewicz.
According to an activist of the Bread and Salt Initiative, also some guards are dissatisfied with the current situation. – Many guards, mainly working for years in the border region of Podlasie, are perpetuated frustrated by the situation. They don’t want to do this, they go to L4. In cases we had that they were just terrified of what they were told to do – a lot.
The Granica Group, which includes the Chlebem i Sola Initiative, you created an organization of organizations that have been helping and supporting students and immigrants for years. – We have been joined by a lot of independent activists and journalists – added Michał Borkiewicz.