Migrants situation at the border between Poland and Belarus

Alexander Lukashenko

Inserted 2 years ago

“We won't only hope. We will work together on your dream. If you want to go westwards, we won't detain you, choke you, beat you. It's up to you. Go through. Go. We won't in any circumstances detain you, tie your hands and load you on planes to send you home if you don't want that.”

Aljazeera

President of Belarus

26 Nov 2021 4 5

Alexander Lukashenko

Inserted 2 years ago

“We need to get through to the Poles, to every Pole, and show them that we're not barbarians, that we don't want confrontation. We don't need it. Because we understand that if we go too far, war is unavoidable.”

Aljazeera

President of Belarus

22 Nov 2021 5 2

Vladimir Sotnikov

Inserted 2 years ago

“Probably, [a] solution could be.. [for the] EU [to] accept President Lukashenko as a legitimate president, and then Lukashenko could start negotiations with the EU just to defuse the crisis and to have a compromise.”

Aljazeera

Political scientist from the Russian Academy of Sciences

19 Nov 2021 4 2

Dunja Mijatovic

Inserted 2 years ago

“I have personally listened to the appalling accounts of extreme suffering from desperate people … who spent weeks or even months in squalid and extreme conditions in the cold and wet woods due to these pushbacks. All pushbacks must end immediately.”

Aljazeera

Commissioner for human rights at the Council of Europe

19 Nov 2021 3 3

Alexander Lukashenko

Inserted 2 years ago

“Maybe someone helped them. I won't even look into this. I think that's absolutely possible. We're Slavs. We have hearts. Our troops know the migrants are going to Germany. I told them I'm not going to detain migrants on the border, hold them at the border, and if they keep coming from now on I still won't stop them, because they're not coming to my country, they're going to yours. That's what I meant. But I didn't invite them here. And to be honest, I don't want them to go through Belarus.”

Rferl

President of Belarus

19 Nov 2021 3 4

Anna Michalska

Inserted 2 years ago

“[The Belarusians] were bringing more migrants to the place where there was a forced attempt to cross. At the start, there were 100 people, but then the Belarusian side brought more people in trucks. Then there were 500 people.”

Aljazeera

Polish Border Guard spokeswoman

19 Nov 2021 2 2

Wojtek Wilk

Inserted 2 years ago

“It's not a typical migration or humanitarian crisis. Because if you go to the core, the decision to escape or leave the place of residence and seek protection or shelter somewhere else is a spontaneous decision made at the level of a family or small community. Here, there is nothing that is spontaneous. It's all facilitated by the government of Belarus. We're going to have the first snow by Tuesday next week. As of Monday, the temperatures will go below zero during the night. So the conditions will be very difficult. Nobody can survive such conditions in a tent. People are on the road for many weeks and they are already weakened and sick and have different cold-related diseases. If snow comes, it will be impossible to wander through the forests. I'm really concerned about that and in this case, hypothermia and frostbite will really skyrocket up to a time when the movement stops.”

Aljazeera

Head of the Polish Centre for International Aid and UN expert in crisis management

19 Nov 2021 2 2

Arsalan Azzaddin

Inserted 2 years ago

“Practically all the patients I dealt with suffered from hypothermia, dehydration, also pneumonia, stomachaches, wounds. Many people had signs of beatings on their bodies. Every case I had was tragic. It's impossible to describe what one feels when they see people in such a condition. The case that shook me the most was a young boy, a 22-year-old Kurd from Iraq. He was completely unconscious, he had a very high sugar level, he didn't eat anything that day and only drank raw water from a plastic bottle. When someone takes insulin, they have to eat properly after each dose. He had nothing to eat so he asked a Belarusian guard for a piece of bread. The guard sold it to him for 40 dollars. Each story is a tragedy on its own. Working and listening to these people is hard. They only ask for one thing: please don't let us return to Belarus.”

Aljazeera

Specialist in internal medicine from Erbil who has lived in Poland since 1980

19 Nov 2021 10 2

Sophie in 't Veld

Inserted 2 years ago

“It's interesting to see that Poland, which has been one of the strongest opponents of the EU's common asylum system, is now asking the EU to help fund a border wall. We are talking about a few thousand migrants. A wall is not the solution. It's time for EU nations to speak with a unified voice when it comes to migration. Nationalistic dialogues are pushing the Union to the brink.”

Aljazeera

Dutch politician of the Democrats 66 party and member of the European Parliament

17 Nov 2021 4 3

Marta Gorczynska

Inserted 2 years ago

“In 2015, it was the first time the refugee policy was discussed at a national level in Poland. Right-wing groups began fuelling an anti-immigrant sentiment by referring to migrants as terrorists who would destabilise Poland and the EU. But people who are afraid of refugees often don't know anything about them. A lot of people living in this border zone are old and lived through the Second World War. They know what it's like to be a refugee. They initially kept their doors open to help those stranded in the forest, but Polish border guards have ordered them not to do so.”

Aljazeera

Human rights lawyer

17 Nov 2021 7 2

Philippe Dam

Inserted 2 years ago

“It's shocking to see that the EU is showing solidarity with Poland when the country is letting a humanitarian crisis unfold. These people have been manipulated into this scheme. The EU should be questioning how to help them and not just how to respond to Belarus.”

Aljazeera

Human Rights Watch's advocacy director for Europe and Central Asia

17 Nov 2021 3 3

Bram Frouws

Inserted 2 years ago

“With von der Leyen calling it a hybrid attack, I think that's exactly what Lukashenko was hoping for. Even though we are talking about a few refugees and migrants trying to get access to Europe, the language is all about war stemming from political panic. The moment you start referring to refugees and migrants as bargaining chips and as weapons of people being instrumentalised, it strips away their agency and dehumanises people.”

Aljazeera

Head of the Mixed Migration Centre (MMC) monitoring group

17 Nov 2021 7 1

Mariusz Blaszczak

Inserted 2 years ago

“[It is necessary] to prepare for the fact that the situation … will not be resolved quickly. We have to be prepared for months; I hope not years.”

Aljazeera

Polish Defence Minister

17 Nov 2021 1 1

Dunja Mijatovic

Inserted 2 years ago

“We need to find a way to de-escalate, to make sure the focus is really to stop the suffering.”

Aljazeera

Commissioner for human rights at the Council of Europe

16 Nov 2021 3 1

Majid al-Kinani

Inserted 2 years ago

“We are working on this with the Belarusian authorities. The number is fluctuating, because people are stuck on the Belarusian border with Poland or Lithuania and so far they have not been authorised to go back to Minsk by the Belarusian authorities.”

Reuters

Iraq's consul for Russia and Belarus

16 Nov 2021 4 2

Heiko Maas

Inserted 2 years ago

“What we see in Minsk, this inhumane system of using refugees as tools to exert pressure on the European Union, has not improved but has got worse over the last days. We will toughen sanctions on individuals who are involved in this human trafficking, and we will have to talk about the fact that severe economic sanctions are inevitable ... We will have to tackle the airlines, too.”

Reuters

Germany Foreign Minister

15 Nov 2021 7 4

Hussein al-Asil

Inserted 2 years ago

“The (Belarus) embassy of course knows that this person is not going for tourism. What kind of tourism would that be, to book a plane ticket for $800 and get a visa for $1,250? They know that these people are coming to go to Europe.”

Reuters

Iraqi based in Ankara who provides travel services to would-be tourists and migrants

15 Nov 2021 3 5

Franak Viačorka

Inserted 2 years ago

“Predictably, he [Alexander Lukashenko] didn't consult the Kremlin. He is again trying to hide behind [Russia]. The crisis on the border will be solved by dismantling dictatorship in Minsk.”

Theguardian

Senior Advisor to Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya

13 Nov 2021 5 3

Gustav Gressel

Inserted 2 years ago

“Lukashenko's rhetoric, the visa policy and the sudden influx of migrants this summer all point to the involvement of the Belarusian state and travel agencies.”

Nytimes

Senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations

13 Nov 2021 5 2

Bayar Awat

Inserted 2 years ago

“The Belarus police guided us to the forest, then pointed directions to lead us inside the forest to keep us away from the official border crossing.”

Nytimes

Iraqi Kurd stranded on the Belarusian side of the Polish border

13 Nov 2021 3 4

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“We won't only hope. We will work together on your dream. If you want to go westwards, we won't detain you, choke you, beat you. It's up to you. Go through. Go. We won't in any circumstances detain you, tie your hands and load you on planes to send you home if you don't want that.”

“We need to get through to the Poles, to every Pole, and show them that we're not barbarians, that we don't want confrontation. We don't need it. Because we understand that if we go too far, war is unavoidable.”

“Probably, [a] solution could be.. [for the] EU [to] accept President Lukashenko as a legitimate president, and then Lukashenko could start negotiations with the EU just to defuse the crisis and to have a compromise.”

“I have personally listened to the appalling accounts of extreme suffering from desperate people … who spent weeks or even months in squalid and extreme conditions in the cold and wet woods due to these pushbacks. All pushbacks must end immediately.”

“[The Belarusians] were bringing more migrants to the place where there was a forced attempt to cross. At the start, there were 100 people, but then the Belarusian side brought more people in trucks. Then there were 500 people.”

“It's shocking to see that the EU is showing solidarity with Poland when the country is letting a humanitarian crisis unfold. These people have been manipulated into this scheme. The EU should be questioning how to help them and not just how to respond to Belarus.”

“[It is necessary] to prepare for the fact that the situation … will not be resolved quickly. We have to be prepared for months; I hope not years.”

“We need to find a way to de-escalate, to make sure the focus is really to stop the suffering.”

“We are working on this with the Belarusian authorities. The number is fluctuating, because people are stuck on the Belarusian border with Poland or Lithuania and so far they have not been authorised to go back to Minsk by the Belarusian authorities.”

“The (Belarus) embassy of course knows that this person is not going for tourism. What kind of tourism would that be, to book a plane ticket for $800 and get a visa for $1,250? They know that these people are coming to go to Europe.”

“Predictably, he [Alexander Lukashenko] didn't consult the Kremlin. He is again trying to hide behind [Russia]. The crisis on the border will be solved by dismantling dictatorship in Minsk.”

“Lukashenko's rhetoric, the visa policy and the sudden influx of migrants this summer all point to the involvement of the Belarusian state and travel agencies.”

“The Belarus police guided us to the forest, then pointed directions to lead us inside the forest to keep us away from the official border crossing.”

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