After living through a decade of conflict in Syria, Boushra believed she was finally going to find safety in Europe. The 48-year-old teacher thought her journey from Syria would be easy. She would fly, via Lebanon, to Belarus. From the Belarusian capital, Minsk, she would drive several hours to the border and cross by foot into Poland. Then, she would get a train to Belgium to be reunited with her brother, who has been living there since 2018.
But on reaching the Polish border in mid-September, Boushra and dozens of other migrants were aggressively pushed back by Polish border guards. When they tried to return to Belarus, they were shoved back by guards and left trapped in the dense forest that straddles the two countries. “We were pushed into the swamp, into the mud, we were shaking from the cold and screaming at the guards, but nothing changed,” Boushra said, “I want to forget all of it.”
Since Boushra arrived at the Polish border, tens of thousands more migrants have attempted to cross into the country, lured by simplified visa rules and direct flights to Minsk from the Middle East. Poland has recorded 24,500 attempted crossings from Belarus this year, more than half of which took place in October alone – compared to 120 in the whole of last year. Anna Alboth, a member of NGO minority rights group, said “there are lots of ‘travel agencies’ in Iraq, Lebanon and Turkey” that spread information about the route to Europe via Minsk. “You can find Facebook ads about the ‘easy, cheap, fast’ trips,” added Abloth, who is also a member of Grupa Granica, a Polish network of 14 NGOs monitoring the situation on the border. Most of the migrants have fled danger and poverty in the Middle East and Asia.
