At the Poland-Belarus border, people are criticizing the image of ‘weapons’ | Refugee Stories

Sokolka, Poland As the geopolitical crisis continues, people are dying in forests on both sides of the Polish-Belarus border.

This weekend, the body of a Syrian boy was found in the woods near the Polish border town of Wolka Terechowska. The cause of death was not immediately available, according to Polish officials.

The restricted area adjacent to the border is a restricted area for journalists and support staff, with no one other than residents allowed to enter. Reports say some people are starting to put green lights outside their homes to show they want to help poor people experiencing a cold and lack of basic necessities, including medical care.

What is happening inside the restricted area cannot be fully confirmed because the military and the police are chasing journalists at any of the checkpoints. Outside, blankets left along the edge of the dense jungle are often just a reminder that some people have crossed a highly protected border.

There is fatigue from the freedom fighters who have been calling for several months the hardships that people are just waking up to. Now, thousands of people have camped on the border with Belarus while Poland, a member of the European Union, has refused to enter into a dispute with its neighbor.

Just a few miles from the roadblock, Kochar *, a 26-year-old Iraqi man from Kurdish, was one of those detained on the other side of the fence. It sends a WhatsApp site that binds its location across the border of Poland Kuznica.

Kochar, who feared persecution in Iraq after working for the Kurdish party in Iran, said he had read on television that he could fly to Belarus, Minsk, and reach Europe in this way.

“You know that Iran can do anything in Iraq, maybe one day they will arrest me,” he said. There are two choices he can make now: “He will die here, or he will die in my land; many of us have the same problem. ”

A mathematician at the University of Sulaymaniyah in Iraq, Kochar had hoped he could have a positive outlook on the EU, but he now knows he has taken a dangerous journey to find a better life. “Sometimes you can do anything to escape death,” he said, even after realizing he had been caught in a war between the EU and Belarus.

“It is not human [what] Europe and Belarus deal with us, “he said.” I know Belarus is using us, but what can we do? “

Refugees from the Middle East and elsewhere are relaxing on the ground as they gather on the Belarus-Poland border [Al Jazeera]

Terms such as “mixed wars” and “weapons” have been used to describe the growing number of desperate people who are attracted to Belarus’ President Alexander Lukashenko at the EU border – but Kochar finds the words difficult to digest.

“We don’t like it,” he said, refusing to be described as a “tool”. “We are here for a lifetime, not a fight,” he said, referring to the number of toddlers around the camp.

The situation on its side of the border is dire. They send pictures of babies and text messages to help them in their faces.

There is not enough fuel for the fire, there is not enough food for the people, and many are suffering from the cold, he said. “We just want this evil to end,” added Kochar. “It’s a bad thing, [to] exploit people and forget personality. ”

“I want Europe and the world to know that we are in danger. We will die here soon. It will be cold,” he said. “Belarus and Poland use us as a war. We want a better life. We are human beings. I do not want to die here, I have many ambitions, I think Europe is full of humanity, but I do not see anything so far. Please help us. ”

Stories of ‘most insulting’

Maurice Stierl, from Alarm Phone networks, said that European countries have found no other way to solve the migration problem “other than to see it as a major political crisis, which, of course, is not the case. Europe has access to thousands of people from Belarus. ”

Stierl went on to describe Belarus’ actions as “very strange”, but added that “when we hear of ‘use of weapons’ and immigrants as’ weapons’ it always proves that these people are not just playing on the chessboard. who have many reasons for wanting to move “.

Stierl said it was important to emphasize the organization of people traveling. “Otherwise, we are always unsettled in this sense where they can be perceived as threats of war or total torture – and, in many ways, both issues are very disgusting.”

Meanwhile, those affected by the turmoil on the ground continue to be in dire straits. Early Sunday morning, Kochar sent word that he was ill.

“The Belarusian military told us we had to cross the border today; if we do not [it] he pushes and hits us, everyone is upset, ”he said.

“We are not doing anything so far and we will not allow others to do so,” he added, adding that he did not want to cut down the border. “We will be strong,” he read his final message. “I hope we survive.”

* Name has been changed to protect the person