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Thousands of migrants in Belarus are still waiting to get into the EU after all. But Poland secured the border. New problems keep cropping up in the emergency shelter. And the returnees report bad experiences.
Brugsi – After a temporary migrant camp has been cleared, the situation on the border between Belarus and Poland remains tense. According to the Polish border guards, several larger groups tried in vain to overcome the fortifications in order to get into the EU.
The incidents occurred on Friday near the town of Dubicze Cerkiewne, the authority announced on Saturday. The largest group consisted of around 200 people, and another of several dozen.
“The foreigners were aggressive. They threw stones and fireworks and used tear gas. ”The border guards registered a total of 195 attempts to illegally cross the border. The Belarusian border guards announced that Latvia, Lithuania and Poland had forced back more than 500 migrants on Friday, some of them violently. Gunshots were heard in a video released by the Belarusian authorities.
According to the Polish police, nine suspected smugglers were also arrested in the border region. Among them are four Poles, two Ukrainians and one German, one Azerbaijani and one Georgian. You were traveling with a total of 34 refugees.
The European Union accuses Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko of organizing migrants from crisis regions to the EU’s external border in order to put pressure on the West. The people from Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan entered Belarus on tourist visas.
In the west of the ex-Soviet republic, thousands of migrants have been waiting for the border to Poland to open for around two weeks. They wanted to stay until the EU let them in, numerous Iraqis and Syrians told a reporter for the German press agency in the emergency accommodation in a warehouse in Brusgi. The border point there is closed with concrete barriers and barbed wire.
In front of the emergency shelter, which only opened on Tuesday, helpers continued to provide people with food and medical help on Saturday. The hygienic conditions are bad. The civil defense also strengthened fire protection.
According to the state agency Belta, experts from the World Health Organization are currently in Belarus. It is about the country’s corona measures and the situation of people stranded at the border. One corona case has so far been confirmed.
According to estimates, around 2000 people who refuse to return to their homeland and want to go to Germany, Belgium and other EU countries stayed in the hall. They are guarded by armed uniformed men and cannot leave the premises. The people would get everything they need, said the general secretary of the Belarusian Red Cross, Dmitri Shevtsov, of the dpa.
Belarusian investigators continued to question migrants who were injured by the Polish side last Tuesday when using water cannons and tear gas. Children had also been hit. The people were questioned with the help of interpreters. The investigation committee in Belarus speaks of more than 100 victims.
Lukashenko compared the Polish security forces with “fascists” in an interview with the BBC. They also violated the Belarusian state border by using the water cannons and tear gas, he said. Lukashenko claimed that chemicals were used that would otherwise destroy “cockroaches”.
According to Poland’s Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak, Belarus has changed its strategy. “Now the method used by the refugees and the Belarusian security forces is a little different,” Blaszczak told radio station RMF.FM. The new method consists in the fact that smaller groups of people would try in many places to cross the border. There is “no question that these attacks are being controlled by the Belarusian authorities”.
Hundreds of migrants had already flown back to Iraq on a special flight on Thursday. Some now report severe abuse. The people were beaten and tortured by Polish and Belarusian police officers, several victims from the Kurdish autonomous regions in Iraq told the German press agency on Saturday.
A 38-year-old from Dohuk said he was mistreated and later forcibly deported from Belarus. In addition, he and other migrants had neither water nor food. The Iraqi wants to try again to get there, despite his disappointment with the countries of Europe. dpa
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