‘We drank from puddles’: Migrants describe brutal journey through forests on Belarus-Poland border
Youssef Atallah, a 37-year-old Syrian, arrived in Poland not too long ago after his third try at crossing from Belarus. Talking at a refugee heart in Białystok, he recalled how upon arriving on the border, Belarusian guards caught his group of 4 and he was crushed, leaving him with facial accidents, a damaged nostril and bruised ribs.
“They took us to the forbidden space. That was the primary attempt to cross the border to Poland,” he instructed CNN. He stated the officers refused to supply medical assist and repeatedly instructed them to move to Poland reasonably than return to the Belarusian capital Minsk. Whereas making the treacherous journey, Atallah stated he had no meals and drank water from a swamp. He added, “I noticed stuff left by one other refugee group (and) I discovered a dice of sugar. I simply begin sucking on it as a result of I can not chew, I can not chunk or something.”
One Syrian girl who CNN spoke to in current weeks stated she had flown from the Lebanese capital Beirut to Minsk. From there she alleges the Belarusian army helped her and a gaggle of different migrants get to the border space and reduce the border fencing.
When Polish police repeatedly pushed the group again, the lady stated they begged Belarusian authorities for secure passage again to Minsk airport, so they might return to their nations of origin. She stated they refused.
The lady stated she ended up trapped within the forest on the Belarusian-Polish border for 12 days earlier than she was in a position to slip previous Polish police and cross the border into Poland. From there, she made her approach to Germany — the specified vacation spot for most of the migrants — after hiring what she described as a “taxi” for $2,000.
Talking to CNN a number of weeks in the past from a refugee heart within the German city of Eisenhüttenstadt, the lady, who requested to not be named, stated: “I slept beneath a tree on a regular basis. [The] first days we have now a sleeping bag. [But] we misplaced all the things after we walked [between] the timber.”
“5 days later we drink water from the ground. We do not have something, they did not assist us,” she stated. “We put a bottle on the ground … we drank water from puddles.”
“We can’t drink from it within the morning as a result of it’s black,” she stated, choking again tears.
Hundreds of stranded folks between Poland and Belarus are caught on the heart of an intensifying geopolitical dispute that has pitted the EU, the US and NATO towards the Belarusian authorities. Western officers have accused Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko of producing a migrant disaster on the EU’s japanese frontier to destabilize the bloc as retribution for sanctions over human rights abuses.
His authorities denies the claims, and as a substitute blames the West for harmful, typically deadly, border crossings and poor remedy of migrants.
The Polish border guard stated on Thursday that it had recorded round 1,000 crossing makes an attempt within the final two days, together with some “large-scale” efforts with teams of greater than 100 folks making an attempt to breach the fence. Polish authorities have detained small numbers of individuals and instantly despatched others again to Belarus.
Polish authorities stated that for the reason that starting of November, there have been 4,300 recorded border crossing makes an attempt.
Migrants who CNN has spoken to say they paid round $8,000 for his or her journey. “I went to Lebanon [from Syria]. From Lebanon, I went to the airport, on FlyDubai on a vacationer visa to Belarus,” stated 27-year-old Syrian migrant Mohammad Nassar.
“On the airport, they deal with you want a vacationer. There is a resort. However as quickly as you go to the border village of Harodnia, they begin to deal with you very badly,” stated Nassar. “For the final 4 days, we had no meals. They gave us nothing. They solely gave us water typically.”
Jino, a 17-year-old from northern Iraq, stated the Belarusian army hauled her group into the again of a truck and transported them to the border.
“The Belarusians … typically they handled us unhealthy, typically they handled us good,” stated Jino, who didn’t disclose her surname for safety causes. “In my case, they introduced us to the border in a truck … they usually reduce the [border] wire.”
The press officer for the Polish border guard, Katarzyna Zdanowicz, stated the scenario within the Kuznica space was calm on Wednesday and that migrants had obtained sizzling meals and drinks from Belarusian servicemen in a single day.
Zdanowicz put the variety of migrants camped out alongside the border at round 4,000, citing border guard estimates. She didn’t rule out the likelihood that extra folks have been making their approach in the direction of the border space from different components of Belarus. Nonetheless, the Belarusian State Border Committee stated Tuesday there have been round 2,000 migrants on the scene.
A number of Polish officers have accused Belarus of serving to migrants in makes an attempt to cross the border. Deputy Inside Minister Bartosz Grodecki instructed Polish media on Wednesday that migrants are “consistently transported to the border by the Belarusian providers.”
Grodecki additionally alleged that “other than the Belarusian providers, there are most likely additionally representatives of the Russian providers” among the many crowds of migrants.
On Thursday, Russia denied it was serving to migrants get into Belarus.
