Terespol. Afghan family at the border crossing. They want to re-enter Poland and ask for protection

– The father of the family was in Afghanistan policeman during the American administration. Now his family is threatened with death in their homeland. As Belarus rejected their request for asylum, they took a taxi to the border crossing in Terespol and wanted to cross the border legally – says Małgorzata Rycharska from the Hope&Humanity Poland initiative (cooperating with the Podlaskie Volunteer Humanitarian Emergency Service, which provides assistance at the border with Belarus).

This concerns an Afghan family with two small children (a three-year-old boy and a two-year-old girl) who were sent back to Belarus by the Border Guard on August 20.

– They had with them a declaration requesting international protection in Poland in Polish and Persian. They intended to stay in our country – says Rycharska.

This is confirmed by the lawyer and representative of the family, Daria Górniak-Dzioba.

– On August 20 at 9:00 a.m. I sent an email to the Nadbużański Border Guard Unit with my power of attorney and a photo of the declaration signed by the migrants. I know that this has no legal significance, because the declaration must be shown to the guards at the crossing, but it confirms the fact that they wanted to ask for protection in Poland. They had the original declaration with them, by the way – he claims.

However, the Bug River Border Guard Unit issued a statement stating that “the foreigners were not authorized to cross the border.”

“The Afghans did not apply for international protection. They were turned back and left the territory of Poland,” the statement reads.

When we asked the deputy spokesman of NOSG, Paweł Smyk, what the migrants were asking for, he said that they wanted to go to German.

– No direct coercive measures were used against the migrants. All procedures were followed – says Paweł Smyk.

Małgorzata Rycharska writes on her Facebook profile that force was used and a scuffle ensued. There are also photos of migrants holding signs with an inscription in English, indicating that they want international protection in Poland. There is also a short film.

– Today the family is trying to get to Poland again. The man is talking to the guards – says Rycharska.

Migration crisis on the borders of Belarus with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia was triggered by Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who is accused of waging a hybrid war. It involves the organized transfer of migrants to the territory of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. Lukashenka, over the course of more than 28 years of his rule, has often threatened Europe with weakening border controls.

Read also: Operation “Lock” – where did the planes to Minsk fly from? Here's what the analysis of thousands of flights shows

The operation of bringing migrants to Belarus from the Middle East or Africa to provoke a migration crisis was previously described on his blog by Tadeusz Giczan, a journalist from the Belarusian opposition channel Nexta. He explained that the Belarusian services are conducting the “Sluice” operation, invented 10 years ago, in this way. Under the guise of trips to Minsk, promising to transfer them to Western Europe, Lukashenka's regime has brought thousands of migrants to Belarus. Then it transports them to the borders of EU countries, where the Belarusian services force them to cross them illegally. This operation is still ongoing.

Organizations providing humanitarian aid on the Polish-Belarusian border claim that despite the change of government in Poland, the law is still being broken against migrants. They claim that they have documented cases of people being thrown out of the border with Belarus who had clearly requested international protection in the presence of volunteers. During one of the press conferences, a drastic film was presented, made available by the Podlaskie Volunteer Humanitarian Emergency Service, showing a limp body of a woman being dragged through a gate in the border fence and abandoned on the other side.

Aid organizations demand that the government restore the rule of law on the Polish-Belarusian border, pursue a border protection policy that respects international and domestic law guaranteeing access to the procedure for applying for international protection and observing the principle of non-refoulement, initiate administrative proceedings against persons crossing the border as provided for by law, immediately stop violence at the border against persons on the way and hold those guilty of violence accountable.

“We know about people in serious health being thrown out of military ambulances, as well as being taken directly from hospitals. Men, women with children and unaccompanied minors are being sent behind the barbed wire and border fence. The deportations are constantly accompanied by violence from the Polish services: using tear gas, beating, stripping naked, kicking, throwing to the ground, handcuffing, destroying phones and documents, taking away backpacks with provisions and clean water. People tell us that they are forced by threats or physical violence to sign declarations that they do not want to apply for international protection in Poland, and then they are taken beyond the fence,” we read in a joint statement of the organization.

Read more at tvn24.pl: Crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border