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

Source: Meduza

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.

Refugees from Afghanistan stranded at a border with the EU in late August 2021. You can read more about Lithuania’s attempts to deal with the influx of migrants coming through Belarus here. 
A family of Syrian refugees hoping to receive asylum in Poland. October 24, 2021. 
Polish border guards trying to prevent Iraqi migrants from entering the EU. October 10, 2021. 
 A 13-person family of Iraqi Kurds that applied for asylum in Poland, but was pushed back to the border with Belarus. October 10, 2021. 
A Syrian refugee in an ambulance. He arrived in Belarus hoping to transit to the European Union, but Polish border guards wouldn’t let him into the country. October 23, 2021. 
A refugee from Yemen. October 9, 2021.
Polish soldiers on the border with Belarus. August 2021. 
Refugees from Afghanistan stranded at the border. August 20, 2021. 
A Pole trying to bring food to refugees. August 21, 2021. 
A Belarusian border guard on the border with Poland. According to many media reports, Belarus is deliberately allowing migrants from the Middle East and Africa to reach the border. August 20, 2021. 
An image from a thermographic camera. A Polish social worker helps refugees from Yemen suffering from hypothermia. October 10, 2021. 
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‘Instrumentalizing migrants’ Hundreds of refugees stranded in Belarus mass on border with Poland in hopes of crossing into the EU

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‘Instrumentalizing migrants’ Hundreds of refugees stranded in Belarus mass on border with Poland in hopes of crossing into the EU

Photos by Maciej Moskwa / TESTIGO

Photo editor — Evgeny Feldman

Translation by Eilish Hart