Pushed back Snapshots from the Poland-Belarus border, where a refugee crisis has been brewing for months

For many months, Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia have accused the Belarusian authorities of fomenting a refugee crisis. These European Union countries bordering Belarus have complained about a sharp increase in illegal crossings since the spring. But Minsk has replied that it won’t prevent migrants from the Middle East and Africa from transiting to the EU because, according to President Alexander Lukashenko, the West “unleashed a hybrid war” with Belarus. On Monday, November 8, the Polish Defense Ministry posted videos showing groups of migrants trying to knock down a barbed-wire border fence, in an apparent attempt to make a mass crossing into the EU country. That evening, Belarusian authorities reported that an estimated 2,000 refugees, including families with children, had massed on the border with Poland. Meduza shares snapshots taken by photojournalist Maciej Moskwa on the Polish side of the border amid the migration crisis fueled by Minsk.