On the border of Poland and Belarus, people denounce the representation of “armaments” Refugee News

Sokolka, Poland – As a geopolitical conflict continues on fire, people are dying in the forests on both sides of the border between Poland and Belarus.

This weekend, the body of a young Syrian man was found in a forest near the Polish town of Wolka Terechowska. The cause of death was not immediately known, according to Polish authorities.

The restricted area near the border is a no-go area for journalists and support staff, no one is allowed to enter except its neighbors. According to reports, some residents have started putting the green light outside the house to indicate that they are willing to help people in serious condition dealing with freezing conditions and a lack of essential supplies, including medical care.

What is happening within the confined area is impossible to fully verify, as soldiers and police keep journalists away from all checkpoints. Outside, abandoned blankets on the edge of thick forests are often the only ones that remind us that they have crossed the fortified border.

There is a feeling of fatigue on the ground that activists who have been waking up for months to a crisis that is waking people up. Now thousands of people are camped on the Belarusian border as Poland, a member of the European Union, has been denied entry as a result of a clash with its neighbor.

Just a few kilometers from the roadblocks, Kochar *, a 26-year-old Iraqi Kurdish man, is one of those trapped on the other side of the fence. It sends a location on WhatsApp that fixes its place opposite the Polish Kuznica border crossing.

Kochar, who worked for a Kurdish political party in Iran, feared persecution in Iraq, and read on social media that he could take a flight to the Belarusian capital, Minsk, and reach Europe that way.

“You know Iran can do anything in Iraq, maybe one day they will catch me,” he said. He now has two options in mind: “To die here or to die in my town; many of us are in the same situation. ”

A graduate in mathematics from Sulaymaniyah University in Iraq, Kochar was hoping he would have better chances in the EU, but he now knows that he has taken a dangerous journey to find a better life. “Sometimes you will do anything to escape death,” he said, despite realizing that he has been caught in a geopolitical tug-of-war between the EU and Belarus.

“It’s not humanity [what] Europe and Belarus do it with us, ”he said. “I know Belarus uses us, but what are we going to do?”

Migrants from the Middle East and elsewhere rest on the ground while gathering on the border of Belarus and Poland [Al Jazeera]

Terms such as “hybrid war” and “armaments” have been used to describe the growing situation of desperate people attracting Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to EU borders, but Kocharri finds it difficult to digest these terms.

“We don’t like it,” he said, dismissing the description as a “weapon”. “We’re here for life, not fighting,” he said, noting the number of small children around him.

The situation on the border is disappointing. She sends pictures of young children with drawn messages asking for help on her face.

There is not enough wood to make the fire, there is not enough food for the people, and many are sick because of the cold temperatures, he said. “We just want to end this bad thing,” Kochar added. “It’s a bad thing, [to] use people and forget humanity. ”

“I want Europe and the whole world to know that we are in danger. We will die here soon. We’re going to freeze, ”he said. “Belarus and Poland use us as a war. We want a good life. We are human beings. I don’t want to die here, I have a lot of intentions, I think Europe is full of humanity, but so far I don’t see anything. Please, please help us ”.

“Deep dehumanizing” stories.

Maurice Stierl, an activist for the Alarm Phone network, said that European countries have found no other way to deal with the issue of migration than “seeing it as a huge political problem, and that is not the case, of course. Europe has the resources to accommodate a couple of thousand people in the forests of Belarus. ”

Stierl said Belarus’s actions are “obviously shocking,” but when we hear “instrumentalization” and migrants as “weapons,” he always emphasizes that these people are not just some pawns moving on the chessboard. At the hands of Lukashenko and other authoritarian leaders – they are people with many reasons to want to move. “

Stierl said it was crucial to emphasize the agency of people on the move. “Otherwise, we’re always stuck in this binary, where they can only be understood as a military threat or as an absolute victim, and in many ways, both narratives are dehumanizing.”

Meanwhile, those trapped on the ground remain in dire straits. Early Sunday morning, Kochar sent a message saying he was ill.

“Belarusian soldiers told us today that we had to cut the border; if we don’t [it] they push and hit us, they are all very upset, ”he said.

“So far we don’t do anything and we don’t let others do it,” he continued, adding that he didn’t want to cut the border fence. “We will be strong,” he read in his last post. “I hope to stay alive.”

* Name changed to protect identity