Franciszek Zakrzewski et Tymek Skowroński, historians
Poland shares its borders with Belarus and Ukraine. Since the summer of 2021, and above all since the russian invasion of Ukraine, these two external boundaries of the EU have become the theatre of two humanitarian crises. Differing in nature, in scale, and in the legal status of the migrants concerned, their dissimilarities are also reflected in the response of the polish authorities and the mobilization of civil society.
“Last week we received a visit from a group of border guard officers here at our headquarters They came to us asking us to cooperate, to help the Ukrainians. We couldn’t believe it. Those were the border guards, the same border guards, who made our job difficult while we were trying to help Middle Eastern asylum seekers entering Poland from Belarus”,[1] explained Anna Dąbrowska, president of Homo Faber[2], an association based in Lublin that works at the country’s two eastern borders.
953.42 kilometres : between a “hybrid” war and a real war on the doorstep
Poland has 418.24 km of shared border with Belarus and 535.18 km with Ukraine. Since the summer of 2021, and above all since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, these two external boundaries of the EU have become the theatre of two humanitarian crises. Dissimilar in nature and in scale, the situations at the two borders also differ in terms of the legal status of migrants, the response of the Polish authorities and the mobilization of civil society. They can nonetheless be monitored and compared via feedback from associations, such as Homo Faber, that work at both borders.
Based in Lublin, Homo Faber formed[3] part of Grupa Granica (Border Group),[4] a social movement bringing together 14 organizations, inhabitants of the border regions and independent activists, set up in August 2021 to assist migrants at the Belarus border. In its report (available in English),[5] Grupa Granica describes the situation on the Belarus border since the summer of 2021 as the outcome of orchestrated human trafficking measures by Alexander Lukashenko’s regime to destabilize the EU and take revenge for the policy decisions that followed the rigged 2020 elections. Migrant groups, including large numbers of Iraqi Kurds, are lured by the promise of an easy border crossing into the European Union, then violently forced across the Polish border in the vast and desolate primary forest of Białowieża, a dangerous natural area far from the official crossing points. The response of the Polish authorities to this “hybrid” war has been to step up security : declaration of a state of emergency in 183 municipalities bordering Belarus, closure of the zone to non-inhabitants, including the media and humanitarian organizations, legalization of push-backs, and accusations of human trafficking against certain activists (art 264 § 3 of the Penal Code). These few thousand people, barely enough to “fill the VIP seats of the National Sports Stadium” in Warsaw, as pointed out by this same report, were sufficient to divide opinion and ensure the adoption of these radical measures. In this respect, “Lukashenko has achieved his goal”, concludes Grupa Granica.
This reluctance to accept migrants trapped at the Poland-Belarus border constrasts markedly with the welcome provided to refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine. Since 24 February, Poland has adopted exceptional administrative measures to take in more than two million Ukrainian refugees. These include authorization to cross the border without a passport or identity documents, creation of reception points in border municipalities and towns,[6] simplified access to the administration and public services via a PESEL social security number,[7] and free access to trains and public transport in Polish cities for people with Ukrainian documents.
But it is mainly at grassroots level that citizens have become engaged in the last few months, with the mobilization of networks of volunteers and associations across the country. Receiving refugees at the border, organizing shuttle services to transport them elsewhere, coordinating housing, hosting refugees in private homes, providing legal, administrative and linguistic support : these are the new daily pursuits of the Polish people, and not just within the non-governmental and associative circles that already specialized in receiving foreigners before the war. The Russian invasion has spurred many people into action, with the emergence of new actors in civil society. Local initiatives have developed, such as neighbourhood associations that coordinate the reception of Ukrainian arrivals in their village or district,[9] and donation pots that have sprung up online.[10] Faced with the massive influx of refugees at the border and in Polish cities, mobilization was especially strong during the first weeks of the war. In the railways stations of Warsaw, alliances of different players – NGOs, firefighters, scouts, local volunteers – were formed to coordinate refugee reception. Some, such as Grupa Zasoby[11] at Warsaw West and Grupa Centrum at Central Station,[12] have since suspended their activities now that refugee numbers have tailed off. Note that this grassroots mobilization was also supported by NGOs and Ukrainian networks already present in Poland, such as the Ukrainian House in Warsaw.[13] In Kraków, for example, the NGO Salam Lab,[14] already operating at the Belarus border as part of Grupa Granica,[15] organized a Ukrainian refugee reception point in cooperation with the Polish-Ukrainian Zustricz foundation.[16]
“IT IS MAINLY AT GRASSROOTS LEVEL THAT CITIZENS HAVE BECOME ENGAGED IN THE LAST FEW MONTHS, WITH THE MOBILIZATION OF NETWORKS OF VOLUNTEERS AND ASSOCIATIONS ACROSS THE COUNTRY. […] THE RUSSIAN INVASION HAS SPURRED MANY PEOPLE INTO ACTION, WITH THE EMERGENCE OF NEW ACTORS IN CIVIL SOCIETY.”
Franciszek Zakrzewski and Tymek Skowroński, historians
Between the “right” and “wrong” border : engagement, cooperation, repression
On 17 April, certain Ukrainian associations issued an alert to the government and the law enforcement agencies about the treatment of migrants at the Belarus border.[17] While expressing a certain gratitude towards the Polish authorities for taking in 2.3 million Ukrainians, these associations denounced the “repression of activists” and the “arrest and immediate refoulement of ‘illegal immigrants’ from the Middle East or Africa” who ran the risk of “torture and violence” after being forced back into Belarus. Indeed, in March, while all eyes were focused on the massive inflow of Ukrainian refugees, the situation on the Belarus border was becoming steadily worse.
“There is no doubt that the situation in Podlachia [a region bordering Belarus] has deteriorated steadily in recent days. It’s as if we were reliving the peak of the humanitarian crisis of several months ago. […] Since mid-March, things have started to get systematically worse at the border between Poland and Belarus”[18] said Katarzyna Czarnota, a member of Grupa Granica, on 22 March 2022. This seems to be a direct consequence of the closure of a holding facility in Bruzgi[19] a few kilometers from the Polish border on the Belarus side. Migrants were held there by the Belarus border guards, sometimes for several months, in atrocious conditions – we have received accounts of violence[20] and rape[21]. Among these migrants, some have been sent back to their country of origin, while 700 others, often in poor health, have been pushed across the Polish border, as noted by Amnesty International Poland.[22]
One reported case concerned 18 people in three Iraqi Kurdish families, including nine children and one disabled person, who had managed to travel 16 km into Poland. On the night of 24–25 March 2022, they were found by activists and a doctor, Paulina Bownik, who gave them medical care.[23] After reaching the border post, the families were separated. While the family of the disabled person were entitled to apply for international protection and stay in a centre for aliens, the others, including a pregnant woman and seven children, were pushed back across the border fence, without water, food or medicine. They were twice forced back into Poland by the Belarus border guards, the Polish patrols on the other side prevented them from advancing any further. On 1 April, thanks to pressure from activists and media coverage of their story, they were finally authorized to apply for international protection in Poland, where they were placed in a detention centre by the Polish border police.
Between 29 March and 4 April, the activists of Grupa Granica rescued a total of 130 people in Białowieża forest and at least 36 migrants were pushed back by the Polish police, despite a ruling by the regional court of Bielsk Podlaski in August 2021 making these expulsions to Belarus illegal. The affair concerned three Afghans arrested in late August in Poland and sent back across the border late one night without witnesses and into a dangerous nature reserve, as was pointed out by the court.[24] This ruling challenged an ordonnance of the Ministry of the Interior of 20 August 2021 which decreed that all persons who crossed the border illegally were to be turned back, without exception for asylum seekers – a text already denounced on 26 August by the Defender of Civil Rights.[25] The war has made these refoulements even more dangerous, with a further worsening of the conditions faced by refugees in Belarus, whose territory is used for Russian military maneouvres, and as a firing range for missiles targeting Ukraine.
Refoulements and repression of activists are continuing, nonetheless. On 23 March, activists were arrested while rescuing a family with seven children ;[26] the public prosecutor wanted to sentence them to three months in arrest but was overruled by the court of Hajnówka. Likewise, a volunteer from the Club of Catholic Intelligentsia (KIK) was arrested two days later, but released at the request of the courts.[27]
Such acts of repression, designed to intimidate, had already been observed the previous autumn, with instances of malicious damage to the cars of doctors working at the Belarus border[28] and police raids on a KIK support centre in Podlachia,[29] for example.
Clearly, different standards are being applied on the two borders by the Polish state and its police. Assistance is welcomed on one and criminalized on the other. While the know-how of associations is in demand for organizing the reception of Ukrainians, these same associations are viewed with suspicion by the authorities on the Belarus border. “Let’s compare the situation of activists on each of these two borders. On one, they are heroes, we are proud, we support them, we identify with them. On the other, they are treated with suspicion. And they are often the same activists, the same people, the same organizations” says the director of Amnesty International Poland, Anna Błaszczak-Banasiak[30]
“COMPARE THE SITUATION OF ACTIVISTS ON EACH OF THESE TWO BORDERS. ON ONE, THEY ARE HEROES, WE ARE PROUD, WE SUPPORT THEM, WE IDENTIFY WITH THEM. ON THE OTHER, THEY ARE TREATED WITH SUSPICION. AND THEY ARE OFTEN THE SAME ACTIVISTS, THE SAME PEOPLE, THE SAME ORGANIZATIONS”
Anna Błaszczak-Banasiak, director of Amnesty International Poland
Engagement on all levels at both borders
Yet refugees are still being supported on both borders with the help of less visible actors, like the inhabitants of the border zone under a state of emergency[31] or the ethnic and religious minorities who live in Podlachia. It was the Tatar community, for example, that organized the Muslim burial of victims found dead in Białowieża forest[32] and is now helping to receive Muslims from Ukraine.[33]
This assistance covers multiple dimensions of need : housing, legal aid, education, health, etc. For example, the Association for Legal Intervention (Stowarzyszenie Interwencji Prawnej),[34] a member of Grupa Granica, provides legal assistance to migrants and activists at the Belarus border. It is now also working with Ukrainian refugees to untangle the complexities of their many legal statuses : Ukrainians who fled before 24 February who are entitled to special protection ; those present in Poland before that date ; non-Ukrainians fleeing the war who face greater difficulty in obtaining aid and permanent status ; unaccompanied minors ; people wishing to legalize their status as Polish residents ; and those in transit to other countries…To this end, Stowarzyszenie Interwencji Prawnej has set up a trilingual website[35] to accompany migrants and refugees needing legal assistance.
With regard to housing, the Club of Catholic Intelligentsia, whose volunteers are still providing support at the Belarus border, has set up a hostel in Warsaw for non-Ukrainian migrants or Roms who cannot find a place to live.[36] Alongside the Ukrainian House in Warsaw, it has also helped to set up an Ukrainian school to respond to the “urgent need to provide Ukrainian children taking refuge in Warsaw […] with a chance to complete their school year.”[37]
Homo Faber, for its part, has teamed up with the municipality and other associations in Lublin to form the Lublin Social Committee to Aid Ukraine.[38] Based in a city close to Ukraine, and without enough resources to operate on both borders, the committee now focuses on helping Ukrainian refugees. Their green helpline received 12,000 calls in the first 29 days of the war, their legal experts have handled more than 1,500 cases and their private housing system has found homes for 1,500 people in a city that now counts more than 40,000 Ukrainians, equivalent to 10% of the total population of Lublin before the war spread to the entire Ukrainian territory. “320 volunteers work 24 hours a day at 10 reception centres in the city” explained Katarzyna Wierzbińska and Anna Dąbrowska from Homo Faber during their speech to the European Parliament on 21 April.[39]
The situations on the two borders of Poland are very different and rapidly changing. While the inflow of Ukrainian refugees has tailed off, with arrivals even outnumbered by returnees, the long-term residence of Ukrainians in Poland, where the public systems of health and education have been severely stretched by the COVID pandemic, raises a new set of questions. A certain fatigue is now perceptible among the actors of civil society, mobilized for more than two months now, and some tensions have emerged, notably between the government and the local authorities overwhelmed by the crisis.[40] At the same time, the Polish-Ukrainian border has also become a strategic hub for the transfer of military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, and for the return of men heading for the front. While the brutal Russian offensive continues in Ukraine, the future appears more uncertain than ever in the eyes of its Polish neighbours.
[1] Source : The Guardian, 3 March 2022. URL : https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/mar/05/poland-rush-to-aid-ukraine-refugees-russia-war.
[2] 2 Association website : https://arch.hf.org.pl/index.php?id=7.
[3] Lacking the resources to operate effectively on the Belarus border and assist the thousands of refugees fleeing Ukraine, Homo Faber left Grupa Granica on 16 March 2022. It continued working with Grupa Granica, however, through a continued presence in Siemiatycze, the provision of storage facilities in Lublin and psychological support to all Grupa Granica volunteers. See the Facebook post on 16 March 2022 : https://www.facebook.com/HFLublin/posts/380301357431474.
[4] Grupa Granica website : https://www.grupagranica.pl/.
[5] Read the report here : https://www.grupagranica.pl/files/Grupa-Granica-Report-Humanitarian-crisis-at-the-Polish-Belarusian-border.pdf.
[6] See the government web page (in English): https://pomagamukrainie.gov.pl/potrzebuje-pomocy/przyjazd-do-polski.
[7] See the government web page (in English): https://pomagamukrainie.gov.pl/potrzebuje-pomocy/pesel.
[8] To date, the border police have counted around 3.7 million crossings at the Ukraine-Poland border (Source : https://300gospodarka.pl/news/uchodzcy-z-ukrainy-w-polsce-liczba). For several reasons, this figure does not correspond to the number of Ukrainian refugees in Poland. An increasing number are returning home, some have arrived from other EU countries and others are moving elsewhere. An article dated 9 May 2022 mentions 1.1 million PESEL numbers allocated to Ukrainian refugees (Source : https://300gospodarka.pl/news/ilu-ukraincow-zatrudniono-w-polsce-wg-nowych-przepisow-minister-podala-dane). A text published by OKO.press at the end of April gives a figure of around 3.2 million Ukrainians in Poland, including those who lived there before 24 February and those who arrived after the start of the invasion (Source : https://oko.press/ilu-uchodzcow-z-ukrainy-naprawde-przebywa-w-polsce-ustalamy/). According to a report by the geographer Paweł Cywiński for the Union of Polish Metropolises (UPM) and based on the recognition of Ukrainian SIM cards (See the report, in Polish : https://metropolie.pl/artykul/raport-miejska-goscinnosc-wielki-wzrost-wyzwania-i-szanse).
[9] For example Pomoc Ukrainie : https://inicjatywasasiedzka.org/.
[10] Like this one, for example : https://www.siepomaga.pl/en/ukraina-potrzebuje-wsparcia.
[11] See the website (in Polish): https://grupazasoby.pl/.
[12] See the Facebook group : https://www.facebook.com/groups/grupacentrum.waw/.
[13] See the website (in Polish): https://ukrainskidom.pl/.
[14] See the website (in English):https://salamlab.pl/en/ukraine-what-have-we-achieved-so-far/.
[15] Read this testimony in English of an Iraqi who managed to cross the Belarus border to Poland posted on the Salam Lab website : https://salamlab.pl/en/i‑survived-crossing-the-polish-belarusian-border-a-testimony/.
[16] Site of the Zustricz foundation (in Polish): https://zustricz.pl/.
[17] See the appeal by Grupa Granica dated 17 April 2022 (in Polish): https://naszwybor.org.pl/apel-2022/.
[18]Source : OKO.press (in Polish), 22 March 2022, https://oko.press/40-dniowe-niemowle-z-rodzina-uwiezione-na-bagnach-kryzys-na-podlasiu-trwa-nadal/.
[19]Source : The Guardian (in English), 14 March 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/mar/14/fears-grow-of-new-crisis-as-refugees-in-belarus-driven-into-ukraine.
[20]Source : Amnesty International (in Polish), 21 December 2021, https://amnesty.org.pl/bialorus-polska-ue-nowe-dowody-przemocy-wobec-uchodzcow-migrantow-ek/.
[21] Source : wysokieobcasy.pl (in Polish), 25 March 2022, https://www.wysokieobcasy.pl/wysokie-obcasy/7,163229,28263074,aktywistka-z-granicy-polsko-bialoruskiej-matka-dala-sie-zgwalcic.html?disableRedirects=true.
[22] See the report by Amnesty International Poland dated 11 April 2022 (in Polish), https://amnesty.org.pl/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Raport-Amnesty-Intrnational-POLSKA-OKRUCIENSTWO-ZAMIAST-WSPOLCZUCIA-NA-GRANICY-Z-BIALORUSIA.pdf?smclient=923ffe2e-138d-4b2a-bbde-2511e5d4c666.
[23] Source : wyborca.pl (in Polish), 31 March 2022, https://bialystok.wyborcza.pl/bialystok/7,35241,28286110,prawo-na-pograniczu-push-backi-nielegalne-a-chora-kurdyjska.html?_ga=2.103632000.1288905986.1648582878%E2%80%93%2011332514.1530023801&disableRedirects=true#S.DT%E2%80%91K.C%E2%80%91B.1%E2%80%91L.1.duzy
[24]Source : Stowarzyszenie Interwencji Prawnej (in Polish), 31 March 2022, https://interwencjaprawna.pl/wywozki-push-backi-sa-niehumanitarne-niezgodne-z-prawem-i-opieraja-sie-na-nielegalnym-rozporzadzeniu/.
[25] See the denunciation by the Defender of Civil Rights (in Polish): https://bip.brpo.gov.pl/pl/content/zmiany-w-rozporzadzeniu-w-sprawie-czasowego-zawieszenia-lub-ograniczenia-ruchu-granicznego.
[26] Source : posting on the Grupa Granica Facebook group (in Polish), 25 March 2022, https://m.facebook.com/grupagranica/posts/379635740631694 ?_rdr.
[27] Source : KIK website (in Polish), 27 March 2022, https://www.kik.waw.pl/aktualnosci-kik/wolontariuszka-kik-zatrzymana/.
[28]Source : Rzeczpospolita (in Polish), 14 Nov. 2021, https://www.rp.pl/kraj/art19100981-zniszczono-auta-medykow-pomagajacych-przy-granicy-bialoruskiej.
[29]Source : OKO.press (in Polish), 16 Dec. 2021, https://oko.press/uzbrojeni-policjanci-klubie-inteligencji-katolickiej-na-granicy-jak-najazd-na-kartel-narkotykowy/.
[30]Source : Amnesty International Poland (in Polish), 9 March 2022, https://oko.press/uchodzcy-nasi-i-obcy-podwojne-standardy-na-granicach-z-bialorusia-i-ukraina-rozmowa/.
[31] See the Facebook page of Białowieska Akcja Humanitarna [Humanitarian action in Białowieża] created in November 2021 : https://www.facebook.com/Białowieska-Akcja-Humanitarna-103160258861314/about.
[32]Source : Polskie Radio Bialystok, 27 Nov. 2021, https://www.radio.bialystok.pl/wiadomosci/index/id/207398.
[33] Source : website of Muzułmański Związek Religijny [Muslim Religious Union], 17 March 2022, http://mzr.pl/pomoc-dla-uchodzcow-z-ukrainy-w-tatarskim-centrum-kultury-islamu-w-suchowoli/.
[34] See a presentation of the Association for Legal Intervention in English : https://interwencjaprawna.pl/en/about/what-we-do/.
[35] Website of the legal portal for people fleeing Ukraine : https://ukraina.interwencjaprawna.pl/en/.
[36]Source : The Guardian, 21 March 2022 : https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/mar/21/poland-ukraine-refugees-entire-world-hostel-everyone-welcome.
[37] Webite of the Warsaw Ukrainian School : https://www.vshkolu.edu.pl/.
[38] Web page about the committee : https://www.lsi-lublin.pl/informacje-rozne/lubelski-spoleczny-komitet-pomocy-ukrainie/.
[39] See the video of the speech by Katarzyna Wierzbińska and Anna Dąbrowska on the Homo FaberFacebook page : https://fb.watch/dvb7N89UFm/.
[40]Source : Regiony (in Polish), 30 March 2022, https://regiony.rp.pl/debata-publiczna/art35979041-samorzadowcy-chca-zwolania-okraglego-stolu-w-sprawie-uchodzcow.
The authors
Franciszek Zakrzewski, is a museum professional and a PhD student in history at EHESS and at the ERC Lubartworld project headed by Claire Zalc.
Tymek Skowroński is studying for a Master’s degree in history at EHESS.
Quote this article
Franciszek Zakrzewski and Tymek Skowroński, “The boundaries of assistance in Poland”, in : Antonin Durand, Thomas Chopard, Catherine Gousseff and Claire Zalc (ed.), Feature “Migration and the borders of Ukraine at war”, De facto [Online], 33 | June 2022, posted online on 24 June 2022. URL : https://www.icmigrations.cnrs.fr/en/2022/11/07/defacto-033–01/
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