The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Refugees in Belarus: "Whether you survive or die is your problem."

2021-11-19T11:52:08.878Z


The situation on the Belarus-Poland border has eased a little. The first refugees have now been flown back to Iraq - and report on how they experienced the escalation.


Read the video transcript here

People jostle around a cable drum to charge their cell phones.

Even if the conditions are still difficult - there is finally a place to wash again, finally a way to warm up food.

After all: these people no longer have to spend the night outdoors, at temperatures close to freezing point.

Hundreds of migrants and refugees from the Belarusian-Polish border were brought to a logistics center on the Belarusian side by the border guards.

The provisional tented camps at the border crossing: dismantled.

Around 2000 people had stayed here in the past few days, hoping to find a way to the EU - many of them Kurds from Northern Iraq.

But the Polish border guards had repeatedly pushed them back with water cannons and tear gas.

Several people, including children, were frozen to death in the makeshift camps between the national borders.

Now the precarious situation between Belarus and Poland has eased a little - but Belarus is now also using the move to the logistics center for propaganda purposes, presenting itself as a helper in an emergency. The EU is accusing Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko of deliberately sending refugees to the border area Smuggling the EU and using it as leverage.

Several hundred migrants were flown back to Iraq on Thursday, and the plane landed in Erbil and Baghdad.

According to Belarus, around 400 agreed to return, including families with children.

Arsed Mehdi, 32 years old, from Basra


»We had to suffer a lot at the border.

The Belarusian army tells you that they are taking you to Poland.

Instead, they bring you to Lithuania.

They'll take your SIM card away and just leave you in the woods.

Whether you survive or die is your problem.

They even took our water away from us.

We were then in the forest for three days and didn't know whether we could go back to town. "

Mohsen Addi, Yezidis from Sinjar


»I myself would have stayed there until death.

But my family was in danger.

If the situation in Iraq doesn't get better in a year or two, I'll go again.

If there is no solution, I have to go! "

Hoger Abdelrahman, Kurd from Sulaimaniyya


»To be honest, I'm very sad right now.

I was happy when I went to Belarus, now we are all sad.

We came back because we have no choice.

All of these young people have no jobs here.

But what should we do when the route is closed? "

It is still unclear what will happen to the people who remain on the Belarusian side near the border.

Reports from Belarus that Germany had agreed to accept 2,000 migrants have clearly been rejected by the German government.

Instead, she advocates repatriation to the respective countries of origin.

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2021-11-19

You may like

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.