Migrants crossing from Belarus into Poland

Alexander Lukashenko

Inserted 2 years ago

“We won't only hope. We will work together on your dream. If you want to go westwards, we won't detain you, choke you, beat you. It's up to you. Go through. Go. We won't in any circumstances detain you, tie your hands and load you on planes to send you home if you don't want that.”

Aljazeera

President of Belarus

26 Nov 2021 4 5

Mateusz Morawiecki

Inserted 2 years ago

“Today, on Poland's Eastern border, we are dealing with a new type of war, a war in which migrants are weapons, in which disinformation is a weapon, a hybrid war. [I received] information that the difficult situation in Afghanistan after the Taliban took over the country in August may by used as the next stage of the migration crisis. I think that the things that unfold before our eyes, these dramatic events, may only be a prelude to something much worse.”

Reuters

Prime Minister of Poland

21 Nov 2021 7 3

Alexander Lukashenko

Inserted 2 years ago

“Maybe someone helped them. I won't even look into this. I think that's absolutely possible. We're Slavs. We have hearts. Our troops know the migrants are going to Germany. I told them I'm not going to detain migrants on the border, hold them at the border, and if they keep coming from now on I still won't stop them, because they're not coming to my country, they're going to yours. That's what I meant. But I didn't invite them here. And to be honest, I don't want them to go through Belarus.”

Rferl

President of Belarus

19 Nov 2021 3 4

Anna Michalska

Inserted 2 years ago

“[The Belarusians] were bringing more migrants to the place where there was a forced attempt to cross. At the start, there were 100 people, but then the Belarusian side brought more people in trucks. Then there were 500 people.”

Aljazeera

Polish Border Guard spokeswoman

19 Nov 2021 2 2

Wojtek Wilk

Inserted 2 years ago

“It's not a typical migration or humanitarian crisis. Because if you go to the core, the decision to escape or leave the place of residence and seek protection or shelter somewhere else is a spontaneous decision made at the level of a family or small community. Here, there is nothing that is spontaneous. It's all facilitated by the government of Belarus. We're going to have the first snow by Tuesday next week. As of Monday, the temperatures will go below zero during the night. So the conditions will be very difficult. Nobody can survive such conditions in a tent. People are on the road for many weeks and they are already weakened and sick and have different cold-related diseases. If snow comes, it will be impossible to wander through the forests. I'm really concerned about that and in this case, hypothermia and frostbite will really skyrocket up to a time when the movement stops.”

Aljazeera

Head of the Polish Centre for International Aid and UN expert in crisis management

19 Nov 2021 2 2

Arsalan Azzaddin

Inserted 2 years ago

“Practically all the patients I dealt with suffered from hypothermia, dehydration, also pneumonia, stomachaches, wounds. Many people had signs of beatings on their bodies. Every case I had was tragic. It's impossible to describe what one feels when they see people in such a condition. The case that shook me the most was a young boy, a 22-year-old Kurd from Iraq. He was completely unconscious, he had a very high sugar level, he didn't eat anything that day and only drank raw water from a plastic bottle. When someone takes insulin, they have to eat properly after each dose. He had nothing to eat so he asked a Belarusian guard for a piece of bread. The guard sold it to him for 40 dollars. Each story is a tragedy on its own. Working and listening to these people is hard. They only ask for one thing: please don't let us return to Belarus.”

Aljazeera

Specialist in internal medicine from Erbil who has lived in Poland since 1980

19 Nov 2021 10 2

Hussein al-Asil

Inserted 2 years ago

“The (Belarus) embassy of course knows that this person is not going for tourism. What kind of tourism would that be, to book a plane ticket for $800 and get a visa for $1,250? They know that these people are coming to go to Europe.”

Reuters

Iraqi based in Ankara who provides travel services to would-be tourists and migrants

15 Nov 2021 3 5

Gustav Gressel

Inserted 2 years ago

“Lukashenko's rhetoric, the visa policy and the sudden influx of migrants this summer all point to the involvement of the Belarusian state and travel agencies.”

Nytimes

Senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations

13 Nov 2021 5 2

Bayar Awat

Inserted 2 years ago

“The Belarus police guided us to the forest, then pointed directions to lead us inside the forest to keep us away from the official border crossing.”

Nytimes

Iraqi Kurd stranded on the Belarusian side of the Polish border

13 Nov 2021 3 4

Pavol Szalai

Inserted 2 years ago

“Although it is legitimate for the Polish authorities to declare a state of emergency on the border due to security issues, the imposed press freedom restrictions are arbitrary and disproportionate. The overall ban for journalists to work in the border zone is contrary to Poland's international press freedom commitments which state that press freedom may be restricted only with a legitimate goal and proportionally to the threat in question.”

Aljazeera

Head of the European Union and Balkans desk at Reporters without Borders

13 Nov 2021 4 5

Mateusz Morawiecki

Inserted 2 years ago

“What we are dealing with is a new type of war. This is a war in which civilians and media messages are the ammunition.”

Nytimes

Prime Minister of Poland

11 Nov 2021 3 3

Dmitry Polyanskiy

Inserted 2 years ago

“There are a lot of cases when Polish and Lithuanian border guards beat migrants and pushed them back to Belarusian territory. I would say that this is total shame and a total violation of any possible international conventions and rules.”

Aljazeera

Russia's deputy ambassador to the UN

11 Nov 2021 8 3

Steffen Seibert

Inserted 2 years ago

“The chancellor [Angela Merkel] stressed that the situation was caused by the Belarusian regime, which was using defenseless people in a hybrid attack on the European Union.”

Rferl

Spokesman of German Chancellor Angela Merkel

11 Nov 2021 4 4

Sea-Watch International

Inserted 2 years ago

“We are shocked and angry about the situation at the border between Belarus and Poland. Once again, the EU is sealing off, creating a humanitarian crisis and unnecessary suffering. A 14-year-old is reported to have frozen to death at the border last night. It was avoidable.”

Twitter

Tweet of Sea-Watch International

11 Nov 2021 5 2

Alexander Lukashenko

Inserted 2 years ago

“We heat Europe, and they are still threatening us that they'll shut the borders. And what if we cut off [the transit of] natural gas to them? So I would recommend that the leadership of Poland, Lithuanian and other brainless people to think before they speak.”

Theguardian

President of Belarus

11 Nov 2021 4 3

Crystal van Leuwen

Inserted 2 years ago

“People have described, in their own words, as being hit with the butt of a gun and kicked in the ribs. One person described that they had been electrocuted in the neck, with physical injuries which looked like what a Taser would leave. We have also treated people with severe dehydration and hypothermia, and significant mental illnesses including post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as people who have attempted suicide as a result of not knowing how to cope with the situation they have found themselves in. These are people, these are individuals and seeking asylum is not a crime. They have a right to due process and to be treated with dignity and respect.”

Aljazeera

Medical emergency manager for Poland/Belarus/Lithuania programme of Doctors Without Borders

11 Nov 2021 6 4

Ursula von der Leyen

Inserted 2 years ago

“This is not a bilateral issue of Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Belarus. This is a challenge to the whole of the European Union. And this is not a migration crisis. This is the attempt of an authoritarian regime to try to destabilise its democratic neighbours. This will not succeed. We know the patterns. We are used to that, by seeing how there was the attempt to influence our democratic elections. We see the cyberattacks. We see the misinformation. Now, we have this hybrid attack by instrumentalising migrants at the EU-Belarus border. And we have to protect our democracies from this kind of cynical geopolitical power play.”

Ec

President of the European Commission

10 Nov 2021 7 4

Vladimir Makei

Inserted 2 years ago

“The migrant crisis was provoked by the EU itself and its states that border Belarus.”

Aljazeera

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus

10 Nov 2021 2 3

Heiko Maas

Inserted 2 years ago

“Lukashenko …unscrupulously exploits people seeking refuge as hostages for his cynical power play… But the European Union cannot be blackmailed.”

Aljazeera

Germany Foreign Minister

10 Nov 2021 3 4

Stanislaw Zaryn

Inserted 2 years ago

“Belarusian security personnel were firing empty shots into the air, simulating dangerous events. We also know the Belarusian authorities are helping migrants to destroy the border barriers. We see how they bring them tools to cut wires... to destroy the fence.”

Rferl

Spokesperson of the Minister-Special Services Coordinator

09 Nov 2021 3 5

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“We won't only hope. We will work together on your dream. If you want to go westwards, we won't detain you, choke you, beat you. It's up to you. Go through. Go. We won't in any circumstances detain you, tie your hands and load you on planes to send you home if you don't want that.”

“[The Belarusians] were bringing more migrants to the place where there was a forced attempt to cross. At the start, there were 100 people, but then the Belarusian side brought more people in trucks. Then there were 500 people.”

“The (Belarus) embassy of course knows that this person is not going for tourism. What kind of tourism would that be, to book a plane ticket for $800 and get a visa for $1,250? They know that these people are coming to go to Europe.”

“Lukashenko's rhetoric, the visa policy and the sudden influx of migrants this summer all point to the involvement of the Belarusian state and travel agencies.”

“The Belarus police guided us to the forest, then pointed directions to lead us inside the forest to keep us away from the official border crossing.”

“What we are dealing with is a new type of war. This is a war in which civilians and media messages are the ammunition.”

“There are a lot of cases when Polish and Lithuanian border guards beat migrants and pushed them back to Belarusian territory. I would say that this is total shame and a total violation of any possible international conventions and rules.”

“The chancellor [Angela Merkel] stressed that the situation was caused by the Belarusian regime, which was using defenseless people in a hybrid attack on the European Union.”

“We are shocked and angry about the situation at the border between Belarus and Poland. Once again, the EU is sealing off, creating a humanitarian crisis and unnecessary suffering. A 14-year-old is reported to have frozen to death at the border last night. It was avoidable.”

“We heat Europe, and they are still threatening us that they'll shut the borders. And what if we cut off [the transit of] natural gas to them? So I would recommend that the leadership of Poland, Lithuanian and other brainless people to think before they speak.”

“The migrant crisis was provoked by the EU itself and its states that border Belarus.”

“Lukashenko …unscrupulously exploits people seeking refuge as hostages for his cynical power play… But the European Union cannot be blackmailed.”

“Belarusian security personnel were firing empty shots into the air, simulating dangerous events. We also know the Belarusian authorities are helping migrants to destroy the border barriers. We see how they bring them tools to cut wires... to destroy the fence.”

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