Emergency Covering
"Camped out in a cluster of small tents on the edge of a muddy field at Poland's border with Belarus, 32 stranded Afghan refugees have become a symbol of Europe's latest border dispute," wrote The Washington Post
On Thursday, Polish President Andrzej Duda declared a state of emergency covering 183 towns and villages in two provinces neighboring Belarus, the first time such powers have been used since the fall of Communism. The measure limits access to the border region to those not authorized by the government.
The group of 27 men, four women, a 15-year-old girl and an elegant gray cat, which they say traveled with them from Afghanistan, has been stuck for more than three weeks near the Polish village of Usnarz Górny. Polish border guards refuse to let them enter the country where they are seeking protection, and Belarus will not let them back in.
“It’s totally inhumane,” said Polish parliamentarian Franciszek Sterczewski, who was filmed attempting to make a dash past border guards with a bag of supplies last week during his eight-day stay in a tent there.
He called it just the most visible “tip of the iceberg” in a battle over migration on Europe’s eastern edge that has seen vulnerable asylum seekers ping-ponged between borders.
It comes as Belarus’s leader, Alexander Lukashenko, chafing from European Union sanctions, is accused of retaliating by opening routes for thousands of migrants to enter the bloc. Lithuania, which also neighbors Belarus and has accused Lukashenko of weaponizing refugees in a “hybrid attack,” has already erected barbed wire fencing and beefed up its border guards amid a surge in attempted entries.
Poland, led by the populist Law and Justice party that espouses a hard-line anti-immigrant stance, says Lukashenko has been using similar tactics on its border, registering 3,500 attempts by migrants to cross from Belarus since early August — compared to zero in the same period a year ago.