1 of 3Photo: KACPER PEMPEL / X02307
SOKOLKA / OSLO (VG) Migrants tell about travel agencies that sell “package tours” to EU countries via Belarus. In reality, they meet a closed border, and become pieces in a political game – with life at stake.
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Documents that VG has gained access to, found on the border between Poland and Belarus, and published in, among others, Wirtualna Polska, seem to strengthen the allegations that the Polish authorities have used as a reason to close the border:
Torn travel documents, identification papers, receipts from travel agencies in the Belarusian capital Minsk, corona certificates with stamps from Syria and Iraq.
The clues point to what VG has received reports from sources in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil, in the Lebanese capital Beirut and in the Turkish city of Istanbul: A new route into Belarus has been created by travel agencies that apparently sell migrants false hopes of entering the EU.
Background: Freezes to death at the border: Uses migrants in violation of EU countries
1 of 4Photo: Grzegorz Sokol
EU: The crisis is staged
One of the travel agencies mentioned in the documents has a website that offers package tours to a non-existent “Beach Holiday Resort” in Belarus. VG has gone through the pages, and translated the offer from Arabic.
But several who have bought such “package tours” have told Polish activists that what they actually get is a one-way ticket with an entry permit to the Belarusian capital Minsk.
As VG has previously reported, Poland has declared a state of emergency at the border, rolled out barbed wire fences and deployed armed soldiers against the migrant flood. The same is happening, albeit on a smaller scale, in Latvia and Lithuania.
1 of 3Photo: Grzegorz Sokol
For migrants who end up in no-man’s land or are sent back and forth between the EU countries in the East and the authoritarian regime in Belarus, it can have fatal consequences: At least six people have been reported frozen to death, warned the UN in a VG article.
The background for the crisis is that the two Baltic countries and Poland are taking refuge the Belarusian opposition against President Alexander Lukashenko, often referred to as Europe’s last dictator.
The EU has accused Belarus of staging the migrant floods in retaliation for EU sanctions against the regime’s handling of the country’s opposition.
Polish media, and politicians, have accused Belarusian intelligence of being involved.
Already in May, Lukashenko warned that he would no longer prevent migrants from moving on to the EU, as punishment for the EU strengthening sanctions against Belarus.
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GUARDED: Soldiers guard a temporary tent camp on the border between Poland and Belarus. 1 of 2Photo: Mateusz Wodzi? Ski / AP
–From Syria, via northern Iraq
In recent weeks, Polish authorities have tried to prevent both aid organizations and journalists from gaining access to the border areas where a high number of migrants reside.
But at a reception center in the town of Bialystok, VG’s Polish freelancers have met several of the migrants. Those with whom VG has spoken have very different stories, but in common that they went via Belarus because they thought it was a route into the EU.
– We come from Qamishli in northern Syria. I had long wanted to get my family out of the country, and heard that it was possible to get to Europe via Belarus, says the Kurdish Syrian “Hassan”, who has traveled with his wife and two children.
– I thought: This is our chance. I found an online travel agency that sold package tours to Belarus. It included an official tourist visa and airline tickets from Erbil in northern Iraq, to Dubai and on to Minsk, and hotel accommodation in Minsk. It cost almost four thousand dollars per person, he says.
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FROM IRAQ. A group of migrants from Iraq stopped at the border between Belarus and Poland. “Hassan”, who does not want to be photographed, further says that the family left Minsk after one night and were driven to the border with Poland. After an unsuccessful attempt to cross the border on foot, they were helped by several Belarusian men in a white van, he does not know if they were armed.
Eventually, the family was transported across a small border river in small plastic boats, and landed in Poland in the middle of the night. After walking through a forest area, they came to an asphalt road the next day. There they stopped a car, which called the police, and they were taken to the reception center.
The family hopes they are among the few who actually get to seek asylum in Poland.
– I know that it is easier to be received when you are from Syria, a family with children, and in poor condition. But many are being taken back to the Belarusian border. We met several of them in the border area, he says.
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STOPPED BY POLICE: Two migrants from Cuba, who have traveled via Moscow and Minsk, are arrested by Polish police. 1 of 2Photo: Willem Arriens
–From Cuba via Moscow
VG’s freelancer has also interviewed two migrants from Cuba, after they had been arrested by Polish police. They tell of an even more special trip to Belarus:
The Cubans say they flew to Moscow because they do not need a visa to Russia. From there they flew on to Minsk, where they easily arranged transportation to the border.
– This is the third time we cross into Poland. Each time we have been arrested and sent to Belarus. There we have been beaten up by the border guards, and sent back to Poland, says “Miguel”.
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DESPAIR: “Miguel” from Cuba has made every effort to reach the EU via Russia and Belarus. Instead, he has become a throwing ball on the border. 1 of 2Photo: Willem Arriens
–He gives VG the opportunity to call his sister who lives in Spain. The next day, “Miguel” has been sent out of Poland, and tells via his sister that he has again been subjected to violence at the border by Belarusian border guards.
He says that he was first transported to the Lithuanian border by the guards, but he did not enter the country either. When is he helped back to Minsk.
Both Poland and Belarus deny the use of violence against migrants, blaming each other for the humanitarian crisis at the border.
PS: VG has not been able to verify the migrants’ stories about the itinerary, or the allegations of use of violence. But their stories are consistent with what a large number of migrants have explained to Polish and international media, as the BBC.
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