They cross the border and disappear. What happened to these children?
Photo: Artur Reszko/PAP
Six children from children's homes in Bialystok – nine disappeared from the house of pensioners in Augustów last year. Among them, 11-year-old Abdi. – He escaped to his family in the Netherlands – say his Polish carers from the orphanage. But how can you be sure that these children escaped? Nobody is looking for them. Nobody checks what happened to them.
– In all of Europe, always where there are refugee crises, human trafficking is done. Why would it be different in Poland? – Anna and Barbara ask.
I meet them in the city near the Polish-Belarusian border. They work at the Funcres Foundation of the Associated Border group. From the beginning of the refugee crisis, they have been looking after underage refugees who reach Poland. So -called boundary children or refugee children. They ask for anonymity – it is a condition that they can openly tell about their work.
And they don't want to call them “activists”. They claim that this concept has been devalued and is not perceived properly. It no longer means professionalism, and is often associated with naivety and something like hysteria. So they are “humanitarian employees”.
“Nobody is looking for her”
Barbara: – It started with a message from Warsaw, with a friend from the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, that there are two girls in one of the orphanages who need help. We go, we enter – in fact, they are. They both speak French. Diana is from Congo, Anastazja from Cameroon. Anastazja is very effusive, it immediately manages to contact her. Energetic, open.
Shortly thereafter, Anastazja went to an orphanage in Warsaw. She studied Polish and intended to go to school. She wanted to graduate in Poland.
On October 1, 2023, Barbara was shopping with Anastasia.
– She bought various things, was full of enthusiasm, planned the future in Poland. For example, she bought ice cream she wanted to put in the freezer to eat them in the next days – says Barbara and suddenly her face is thickening. – The next morning it turned out that she was not in an orphanage. She disappeared.
– Maybe she ran away, decided to go somewhere further, west? – I'm asking.
– Anastasia has no one abroad, no family. I spent all day with her then. She trusted me, she would tell me. There was nothing to indicate. There is no such option for her to run away.
– So you think it was kidnapped?
– Yes, I'm convinced. And no one is looking for her today.
“Classic case”
Monika Matus also met Anastasia in an orphanage. They made friends and in effect she became her legal guardian. Here is her relationship.
– On October 1, 2023, around 22, one of the children's home employees called me. She said she was obliged to tell me that Anastazja did not return home. I was in CroatiaI immediately started calling. First to Anastasia itself, but the phone was silent – “subscriber unavailable”. Then to her friends, to the teachers, to find out anything. I sat on the phone for most of the night. It was Sunday. It turned out that she left the orphanage early in the morning, before 9. And that it is not known where she was all day. It was the day when Donald Tusk organized a march [Miliona Serc – red.]thousands of people came to Warsaw. I thought that maybe she went somewhere, she got lost that maybe there was some racist incident. But nothing like that happened. Anastasia has disappeared.
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