PROTESTERS rallied in Warsaw to show their opposition against Poland’s migrant regulation due to the series of tragic deaths wherein bodies of migrants were found dead due to extreme natural conditions.
Dozens of people staged a protest outside the Polish prime minister’s office in Warsaw to oppose Poland’s migrant regulations following the recent reports of the death of a 32-year-old Pakistani man near the Polish-Belarusian border.
Demonstrators lighted candles and held banners, as well as signs that read, ‘All migrants welcome!’ and ‘Each pushback is a death sentence’.
The ongoing migrant crisis at the Poland-Belarus border began in the fall of 2021. Wherein thousands of migrants illegally cross the border into Poland, and the European Union—by extension.
According to local media reports, the Polish government deported over 6,000 migrants who crossed the border from Belarus between July 2023 and January 2024.
The previous government also built a physical barrier that was completed in 2023.
This barrier is a 5.5-meter-high fence of steel spans. It has a razor wire on top, has a length of 186 kilometers, and is under continuous monitoring.
Still, migrants find multiple ways to get around the border, however, they are later exposed to extreme natural conditions in the forests surrounding the border between Poland and Belarus.
“We are tired of looking at dead bodies in the forest. It’s time to repeal the pushback regulation. It’s time to start normally, to humanly respect people looking for a safe life in a civilized place called Europe. Stop pushback, stop arbitrary detention,” Urszula Wolfram, Demostrator said.
“A group of my friends spent last night in the swamps. A night of murderous searches for a missing young man who found himself in Belarus. He had asked for asylum in Poland and had become a victim of humanitarian deportation,” Wolfram added.
“We want the pushback regulation to be repealed and for people at the border not to experience violence from the Polish state or Polish services, and for the Polish state to be able to take care of these people and approach them individually and meet this crisis that is happening at the border, which is a humanitarian crisis.”
“We have documented 59 deaths. These are victims who directly could have died for reasons such as hypothermia, starvation, or lack of basic necessities, but unfortunately, the main blame for their deaths lies with the Polish government, Polish politics, and international politics, and those who did not reach out to them did not reach out to helpless people,” Adam Barwinski, Demonstrator said.
