Kurdish migrants stuck on Belarus-Poland border claim ill-treatment, poor conditions

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Around 300 Kurdish migrants remain in stalemate on the Belarus-Poland border, claiming physical harassment by border guards, a lack of food and water and dire cold. 

Karwan Kamil, a migrant on the border, told Rudaw on the phone on Saturday that around 300 Kurdish migrants from the Kurdistan Region have been stuck in the forest between Belarus and Poland for weeks and “are facing a terrible situation with no food or water.” 

He said that an 11-year-old child from Erbil has died of cold and hunger. 

Kamil said that the Belarus police have treated them terribly.

“[Police] have broken arms and legs of many migrants...they do not help us at all,” he said, adding that more migrants will suffer at the border should the situation continue.

Balen Yousif, a migrant from Zakho, is shown in video footage sent to Rudaw calling for help, claiming that border guards broke his limb.

“Belarus police beat me up and broke my leg,” he said in Kurdish. “My leg has been like this for seven days now.”

Thousands of migrants have tried to gain entry to E.U. nations from Belarus this summer. The E.U. accuses Minsk of pushing migrants to their borders in protest of sanctions imposed in response to a crackdown on dissent.

Poland declared a state of emergency on their border in late September. It has registered around 23,000 attempts to enter its territory this year, DW reported. Other migrants have tried to enter Lithuania or Latvia, but have ended up in camps. 

This year, roughly 37,000 Iraqis have left the country, according to data from the Summit Foundation for Refugee and Displaced Affairs (Lutka). 

Iman Dler, one migrant who had traveled with her family, told Rudaw on Friday she had been separated from the rest of her family members when she was taken by Polish border guards to treat her broken leg. In an interview with Rudaw, she pleaded for help finding her family members, unaware at the time that her brother, 25-year-old Gaylan Dler, had died on the border the night prior.

The Polish parliament this month passed a law that grants border guards the power to push migrants back across the border, Reuters reported. It’s part of an effort by Belarus’ neighbors to fortify their borders and stop the migration. The move, which could breach the country’s commitments under international law, has drawn criticism from human rights organizations. 

Bill Frelick, Refugee and Migrant Rights Division Director at Human Rights Watch, told Rudaw on Wednesday that the move is “unacceptable.” 

“We are seeing that this is a standoff, basically, with Poland pushing people back,” he said. 

“Belarus, of course, is using refugees as pawns in order to negotiate with the European Union, and this is completely unacceptable, but it’s equally unacceptable for Poland to be pushing people back.”

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is offering assistance to those who want to return or send the bodies of their dead back to the region.

"Those who are in a very bad situation and have entered Polish territory...some of them want to return to Kurdistan; we are helping them,” the KRG’s representative in Poland Ziyad Rauf told Rudaw this week. “As for those who have lost their lives, we are trying to bring their bodies back to Kurdistan.”

Additional reporting by Dilan Sirwan

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