November 19, 2021
by Warren L. Nelson
At least 13 Iranians trying to flee Iran for Europe are trapped on the border between Belarus and Poland with neither country willing to aid them.
The Iranians are among an estimated 6,000 Middle Easterners who flew to Belarus over the past year, seeing it as a way to slip into the European Union. EU member Poland is right next door. But the EU prevailed on Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko to secure the border and stop the Iranians, Iraqis and others from crossing.
In May, however, Luka-shenko said he would no longer hold back the flow of refugees. After this statement, the number of migrants trying to enter the EU from Belarus increased sharply. First, dozens and then hundreds of migrants were stopped daily by Lithuanian border guards. Then lots of them headed for Latvia and Poland. As a result, Poland and Lithuania are building fences on the border with Belarus.
The EU accuses Belarus of deliberately provoking a migration crisis in response to sanctions imposed on Lukashenko’s regime, often called the last dictatorship in Europe. The EU is now preparing a fifth package of sanctions against the regime over its use of migrants as a tool against the European Union.
Iran ignored the issue until mid-October when some of the fleeing Iranians got attention on social media by saying they were trapped on the Polish-Belarusian border in the cold and rain as neither country would allow them to move.
The Iranian media is now giving lots of attention to their plight with the Iranian Foreign Ministry boasting of its efforts to help the Iranians return to their homes—ignoring the fact that these people are trying to flee Iran.
The Foreign Ministry says its embassy staffers in Belarus have gone to the border and spoken with some of the refugees. It says the staffers found 13 Iranians 10 women and three men, though there likely are others stranded at other points along the Polish, Latvian and Lithuanian borders.
Deutsche Welle (DW), the German national broadcaster, spoke with a number of the refugees along the Polish border and reported October 15 that they say they have been illegally pushed back into Belarus multiple times without being permitted to claim asylum, as allowed under international law.
DW spoke with an Iranian couple, Neda and her husband Abuzar, as they sat under a tree in a field in Poland, freezing, hungry and losing hope.
“I tumbled six days ago and fell down,” Neda told DW. “I bled and now I am no longer pregnant.”
The Iranian couple left the Belarusian capital of Minsk 10 days earlier in early October and say they have now been pushed back and forth by border guards in the region multiple times.
“The Belarusian police took all the money we gave them to buy us food and to activate our prepaid SIM cards — but they never brought us any-thing,” Abuzar says. “They emptied our pockets and at night they took us by force to the border. We have now spent three days in the forest.”
DW said it found the couple through local activists in eastern Poland who have created a network that asylum-seekers can contact for help if they are in need.
Kasia, a local woman who had left her children in bed to rush to help the couple, told DW that when the couple was first found, they were in an “absolutely hopeless situation.”
She spends all her spare time rushing to emergency calls such as this, which are organized by the Polish aid network. People involved communicate through protected messaging platforms, fearing repercussions from authorities, not to mention neighbors who are not supportive.
The activists say the people they frequently encounter have no food and are left with no option but to drink water from puddles.
At least five people have died in the forest, DW reported.
The activists help the refugees fill out forms and get the couple to repeat after them these words in Polish: ”I want asylum in Poland.”
“You must not tell the border guards you are trying to get to Germany or they will push you back to Belarus,” the activists tell them. International law allows someone to seek asylum in the country where they are located, but not to say they want asylum somewhere else.
Most of the people arriving in Poland had been told they will be in Germany within 10 days after leaving Minsk; it is the destination of choice.
Once the activists are sure they can say the statement clearly and have their paperwork in order, they call the border guards and instruct them to come and collect the couple.
Guards did arrive shortly after 7 a.m., but did not respond when DW asked whether the couple would be guaranteed the right to apply for asylum in Poland.
Forcing asylum-seekers back over a border, known as “pushbacks,” is illegal under international law.
DW says the couple is taken away in a border guard’s car, and the activists move on to their next intervention.
Poland declared a state of emergency over the migration row and set up the border exclusion zone September 2. The zone is 3 kilometers (2 miles) wide and runs along the entire frontier.
The Polish parliament has just approved 300 million euros ($350 million) to be used to build a border wall.
The right-wing Polish government says it is protecting the EU’s external border. Up to now, EU officials who have visited have not publicly raised concerns — although none entered the exclusion zone.