The border feeling is like a war zone / Article

LTV journalist Odita Krenberg went to one of the small towns on the border to find out the mood there.

Both Poles and migrants are afraid

Very long queues of cars are now forming on the streets of Poland’s small border towns. Police and border guards are making great efforts to check every car that passes through to make sure that no escaped migrants are hiding there.

Locals find the situation with strangers roaming around the country scary. So does Elizabeth Melnikova. She is Latvian, married in Poland, and life in their peaceful small town of Hajnovka has now changed a lot.

“2021. I never think that there will be a feeling of war again, ”admits Elizabeth.

“Heavy, army cars are parked around the store. At night they flow everywhere. We are not advised to walk in the woods, as you may encounter migrants at any time. They can hide. It’s unpleasant.

Just scared because they are starting to get more aggressive. They are not let go, they are afraid. I fully understand that they want to get out of there. ”

Migrants caught in the forest, frozen and exhausted, in need of medical help, are taken to local hospitals, including Hajnovka.

Breaking the heart of children

Like other locals, Elizabeth sympathizes with the migrants because of the harsh conditions in which they find themselves. Clothes were also collected to be handed over to them, but the migrants, seeing that this was not a branded clothing, had given up.

“They give up clothes because they are not brand clothes. Well then comes the funny question – how can we help them any other way? ”

“Of course I have a heartbreak for children, that children are in this whole situation. The hardest part is that we can’t help them. “

“I heard that the Poles want to bring food and clothes to the Belarusian border, but the Belarusians do not let them. They are not allowed to bring those goods. Poland wants to help but doesn’t let them. “

CONTEXT:

In the summer of 2021 the number of migrants increased significantly, which is trying to enter the territory of Latvia, Lithuania and Poland illegally from Belarus. Most migrants are arrived from Iraq.

Officials from the Baltic states and Poland pointed out that the Belarusian authorities deliberately do not obstruct the crossing of the borderto punish these countries for supporting the Belarusian opposition and sanctions against Alexander Lukashenko’s regime.

The European Union will do so described as the deployment of hybrid warfare and promises to help strengthen the EU’s external border.

On November 8, a large group of migrants gathered at the Belarusian border with Poland, trying to enter the territory of the European Union, but Poland refuses to allow these people because they believe that they are not refugees, but “tourists” who have come to Belarus voluntarily.

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