‘$ 4,000 visa and airline ticket’: Immigrants arrested in EU-Belarus line

Dino, an Iraqi Kurdish man, knew he was taking a risk to enter the EU through Belarus. But in pursuit of a new life, he paid $ 4,000 for a travel agent who arranged for a visa and a plane ticket to the Minsk capital.

He finally reached the Polish border last week, to meet the barbed-wire fences, sub-zero temperatures and heavily armed soldiers who were sent to prevent people like him from crossing.

“It’s too cold. . . “We are here and we are starving,” the 47-year-old told the Financial Times in a phone call from a concentration camp this week, with the barrier separating him from Poland in the background. ” there to work. ”

He and thousands of other migrants are crossing the border and the growing crisis that EU officials say has been orchestrated by the government of the powerful Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko, as part of a plan to disrupt the EU in return for aid. Belarussian opposition.

The protests intensified this week with a large group of border crossings, sparking warnings from the EU of new sanctions in Belarus and Lukashenko’s threat to close down. gas transport in bloc.

At the center of the crisis are refugees alone, pressured to a minimum, Polish security on the one hand and Belarus troops. In a video clip from the forest camps this week, he talked about the lack of food and water and showed many children in the camp, building a campfire on a cold floor.

“We can’t sleep, because it’s so cold,” said one woman over the telephone this week. “We’re going to die here.”

Six people have died, according to Polish security guards, who only know about the crimes that are part of their borders.

Over the past six months, the number of people seeking illegal entry into the EU through its eastern border has risen as Belarus has allowed migrants including Iraq, Syria, Somalia and Yemen to enter its territory and border with Poland. such as those in Latvia and Lithuania.

Those who spoke to FT this week also told the same story about their stay in Belarus. A 26-year-old factory worker from Kurdistan, who arrived in Minsk last week, said Iraqis could not get visas at home and local helpers could get them from Belarus consulates abroad.

A Kurdish aid provider who specializes in the processing of immigration visas said he had obtained Belarussian visas for Iraqis in Turkey. A factory worker said he flew through Istanbul.

Despite the difficulties, the method is still popular. “Facebook, social media – they all talk about this,” he said. “In every family, one [person] trying to get to Belarus. “

Arriving in Minsk, he boarded a taxi with a group of about 25 other people, led by a smuggler. But in the forest the group was evacuated and robbed, so they returned to the capital to prepare for a retrial.

With just a few days to go before getting her visa, she feels she has been disappointed by a company that paid $ 3,500 to fix her trip. “They say ‘we can get you to the border and cross easily’. But when we get to Minsk that’s not the case.”

He also feels that he is being deceived by the Belarusian side. “The government uses us in border areas as a tool. Lukashenko uses us against the EU, “he said, speaking by telephone from Minsk.

Dino said the smugglers volunteered to take people across the border to $ 6,000. He later added that the migrants were instructed to travel through the Polish jungle to a place where smugglers would meet in a car.

Belarusian migrants linked to FT said that although some Belarusian taxi drivers had taken people from Minsk to the border area, government officials had not provided them with assistance or organization on the trip.

But at another border camp, near the Belarusian town of Grodno, the refugees reported Belarusian police trying to lead the people, including relocating them to another border. Police have also tried to exacerbate the problem and lead to violence, one visitor said.

“The Belarussian police are attacking us and saying, ‘Go to Poland’,” Binar, a 25-year-old Iraqi man, said in a telephone call from a border tent. “It’s like a ball. . . between Belarus, Poland and Lithuania police.

Binar left his home in northern Iraq a month ago, on his first trip to Baghdad and then to Damascus in Syria, where his travel agent obtained him a Belarus visa and put him on a plane.

In the meantime, he has tried six times to cross Poland, sometimes walking for 16 hours in the woods at night with 12 refugees led by a smuggler. He has always failed or been reinstated.

Anna Dabrowska of Grupa Granica, a group that helps immigrants, said what was happening in the camps was difficult. “These are people who are experiencing a humanitarian crisis. There is no food, running water or medicine,” he said.

“We have evidence from refugees [in Belarus] about being beaten, chased by dogs. On the other side of the border is the Polish army and the police, who do not tolerate violence. ”

But Binar said he had no intention of abandoning his quest to reach Europe. “Even if 100 people die here, our people will not return,” he said. Because we do not want an earlier life, we want a better life.