BIAŁOWIEŻA The atmosphere is tense. Polish activists have received another request for help from the forest late at night. Activists quickly fill the bags with food, water and clean clothes. We go on their journey to locate the signal.
This section of the border has been particularly popular for border crossings, as the forest here is dense. It provides a good hiding place, but it also has a darker side. In the past, at least 29 dead migrants have been found in these forests.
Mosquitoes and moths fly into our eyes as we try to keep up with the activists’ buttocks.
Working as a group leader Mariusz Kurnyta says that his group has never encountered so many migrants in Poland before. Not even in 2021, when huge numbers of illegal border crossings entered Poland.
Suddenly, Kurnyta starts whistling. A group of about ten men is revealed from behind the bush. They say they are from Eritrea, East Africa.
The men are visibly relieved by the arrival of the Polish activists. Some seem to be in poor condition.
– I think it’s broken, says one, pointing to his leg.
The Belarusian border guard hit the leg with a rubber band, the man says in English. Several have traces of dog bites. Many people say they are shocked by the harsh measures taken by the Belarusian border guards.
27 years old Nahum says that in Eritrea the only prospect for the future would have been the army. That’s why he chose a life-threatening journey. It was not free, because the “ticket” to freedom cost many thousands of dollars.
Hybrid war between Russia and Belarus
Russia and Belarus are hardly interested in men’s fates. For them, these people are just pawns in a hybrid war against the West. The mechanized migration flows to Poland started already in 2021.
Then the previous Polish government responded by quickly building a three-meter fence on the border. It turned out to be a weak barrier, but border crossings decreased nonetheless.
Since May, large numbers of migrants have come to Poland again. Poland recorded more than 7,000 illegal border crossing attempts in May alone. During the entire beginning of the year, according to Poland, there have been around 18,000 attempts to cross the border illegally.
Finland also got a share of Russia’s hybrid operations, when people started showing up at the eastern border last winter in extreme cold. Then the border between Belarus and Poland temporarily became completely silent. In Finland, it was feared that the emigrants might return when the weather warmed up.
Spokesperson for the Podlasie Border Guard by Katarzyna Zdanowicz according to which those who have crossed the border are regularly returned to Belarus. According to him, many want to continue their journey, especially to Germany.
Many try to cross the border again later, because Belarus doesn’t worry about them either.
However, the situation is in many ways different than in 2021, says Zdanowicz.
– Most of the newcomers are young men aged 20-40, while a couple of years ago there were also women and children.
According to Zdanowicz, the routes are also different than in 2021.
– Most of the newcomers have first arrived in Russia legally. From there they are transported to Belarus.
Violence shakes Poland
In Poland, however, the violent actions of the migrants have spoken the most.
– Unfortunately, foreigners on the side of Belarus are behaving more and more aggressively. They have weapons that directly threaten the people protecting our border, Zdanowicz says.
According to Poland, men have also been trained in Belarus for aggressive actions against the Polish border authorities. According to Zdanowicz, on the Belarusian side, aspirants are also given, for example, ladders and other tools that make the crossing easier.
A couple of weeks ago, Poland was shaken by a case in which a Polish border guard was killed as a result of a knife attack at the border fence. Many other border guards have been injured.
Now a protection zone has been declared on the border, which covers about 60 kilometers of the more than 400 kilometers long border between Poland and Belarus.
In practice, the protection zone means a buffer zone of about two hundred meters, where you must not go. In some places, the zone extends to a depth of up to two kilometers. The purpose of the zone is to protect both local residents and make the work of human smugglers more difficult.
Some of the farmers living in the border area have resorted to more creative means. This week, a video of a Polish man making a wall of pig dung at the border went viral on social media. Farmers believe that Muslims do not dare to go beyond that.
In the video below, a man living in the border zone talks about his encounter with migrants:
The Poles have responded to the tense situation by also bringing additional reinforcements to the area. According to Zdanowicz, Polish border guards have to use harsh measures, such as firing warning shots at the border every day, to prevent migrants from crossing the border.
The mood changed in Poland
The border guard’s death was in many ways a turning point, also politically. Poland was previously criticized for taking a hard line. When the previous government set a protection zone on the border, the current government parties that sat in the opposition also criticized the country’s policy.
Now the situation has changed, and the actions of the Polish government have hardly been criticized.
Poland shares a common border with Russia and Belarus for more than 600 kilometers. It is the second longest external border of the EU, right after Finland.
A few weeks ago, the Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced a plan for the border project called Itäkilve, which is estimated to cost more than two billion euros. The purpose is to fortify the border so well that Russia would not even think of attacking Poland.
Activists following do not have time to think about the wider dimensions of the situation.
Activist Mariusz Kurnyta sees it this way.
– It’s about people as individuals. They are not a hybrid operation to me.
Activists inform Africans who have crossed the border about the asylum application process and their rights.
– You have two options. If you decide to apply for asylum in Poland, you may be placed in a closed detention center. It’s not a nice place in Poland – it’s like a prison, activist Paulina Kremer says.
Everyone still says they are seeking asylum in Poland.