– Many will die when winter comes – VG

Less than 3 hours ago

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– We do not know for sure why there has been less need for help from us in recent days, but maybe it is because the refugees have been blocked from crossing the border?

Dorota Nowok (34) of the Polish aid organization Fundacja Ocalenie (Salvation Foundation) receives VG in a small garage in a backyard in the center of the small town of Sokolka a few kilometers from the border between Poland and Belarus.

There, on the border, a migrant crisis is unfolding. In the last week or so, there has been complete chaos: Hundreds, probably thousands, of desperate migrants and refugees, mainly from the Middle East, have been pushed to the border by Belarusians. There they meet barbed wire, tear gas and 15,000 Polish soldiers.

This has made it more difficult for refugees to achieve the dream of the EU and Europe.

For Nowok and his colleagues, the last quiet days have meant that they have had time to sort in the warehouse in the garage. Shelf on shelf is filled with blue IKEA bags with water, boxes with shoes, which are marked with size, warm clothes, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, hygiene items and equipment to charge mobile phones with.

It is not a large warehouse, but enough to be able to help many who need it. And the donations keep coming in.

– When we receive a phone call that someone needs our help, it is important that we can quickly pack what we need, whether it is for adults or children, says the aid worker, and adds that her organization has so far helped 250 refugees.

Do not think the authorities care

Because when they are contacted, it is usually from someone who has met refugees in the forest areas near the border. They are missing most things. And now – in mid-November – both the days and the nights are cold here in the far east of Poland.

And it’s going to get worse.

– Many will die when winter comes, but I do not think the Belarusian authorities care. Poland does not seem to do that either, Nowok sighs.

Poland has since September declared a state of emergency at the border and deployed armed soldiers to stop refugees entering the country from Belarus. They do not want to let them seek asylum in the country. Belarus, for its part, is accused to use them as pieces in a game to put pressure on the EU, using travel agents such as sells “package tours” to EU countries via the Belarusian capital Minsk.

The refugees thus end up in a pinch.

– We tell those we go out to help that it is dangerous to seek asylum in Poland. Those who do so are placed in detention centers because they have crossed the border illegally. But now it is not possible to cross the border legally, so they are set in a trap, says the aid worker, who adds that it is also not safe to seek asylum in the dictatorship of Belarus.

Afraid to find someone who is dead

But even those who try to help experience difficulties. It has been reported that aid workers and activists have had their windows smashed in their cars by Polish nationalists who support the government’s desire to prevent refugees from seeking asylum in the country. VG has not had the opportunity to verify these allegations, but Nowok says she is aware that it should have happened.

– Our organization has not experienced it, but we have experienced that people have tried to block the road for us when we want to drive in some places.

The biggest challenge, however, is that they – like the media – are not allowed to go within the zone the Polish authorities have established a few kilometers inland from the border. Thus, they do not quite reach the border itself, and can not help refugees until they have gotten safely out of this zone.

– We went in on one occasion, but then we were fined. They can also arrest us if we do, so there’s a risk. We were even threatened with arrest once we were on the border of the zone, but without being inside.

– Do you feel safe?

– I’m not sure, but what scares me the most is to be out in the woods and find someone who is dead.

So far, at least 10 people have been reported dead.

Want a new government

Nowok also says that it has been a challenge for them when they have gone out to help refugees who turn out to need medical help. She explains that in practice a telephone to the ambulance is also a telephone to the border guard, who then takes the refugees to a detention center.

– Then we also know that the border guards have taken them back to the border and literally lifted up the barbed wire fence and forced people to return to the Belarusian side. But on that side, they are so pressured to enter Poland again, she says and adds:

– Some have also been pressured to cross the river that runs along the border, and we know that people have died there.

On Tuesday, VG visited the grave of 19-year-old Ahmed Al Hasan from Syria, who was found dead in the student, and now is buried in a small Polish village thousands of kilometers from the family.

Dorota Nowok strongly dislikes the situation that is taking place on the border with her home country. To see people in sharp fall die instead of getting the help they need.

– I do not know which feeling is strongest in me during the day. Maybe sun? And frustration. It hurts to feel that you can not do as much for these people as we want.

Many other Poles feel the same way, and many have asked the aid worker what they can contribute.

– I say that the most important thing they can do is make sure to change the government in Poland.

Can be long lasting

Migrants who have been in tent camps on the Belarusian side of the border were put on buses and driven away from the place on Wednesday, according to a Polish spokesperson. If the information is correct, it could mean a possible de-escalation in the tense situation. But according to NTB, it is also speculated whether they will just be moved to another location along the border.

Poland announced on Wednesday that the migrant crisis can be long lasting.

– We must prepare for the fact that the situation on the Polish-Belarusian border will not be resolved quickly. We have to prepare for months. I hope it does not take years, said Minister of Defense Mariusz Blaszczak to Polish Radio Jedynka

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