Posted: 30.10.2024 17:08:25

Shevtsov: refugee situation on Polish border ‘a cruel show’

Belarusian border guards found 15 refugees that had been beaten up and shoved through the gate from the Polish side of the border. They all had injuries from rubber bullets and dog bites. Political expert Yuri Shevtsov talked to Alfa Radio about the reasons for that situation and its possible outcomes.


“What we are seeing today is something that had been happening before: the Polish foreign adventurism. It’s an intrinsic feature of the Polish statehood, and it has been there as long as Poland existed as a nation. Polish governments have always been fond of bold gambles. As for the causes of this refugee crisis, remember, Poland and some other countries cancelled all co-operation with Belarus when it comes to migration issues. That co-operation required investments: as soon as they withdrew funding, Belarus also stopped filtering the flow of migrants who want to get to the EU. They don’t cause any problems for us, they arrive here legally, but for the EU countries, they are criminals. Furthermore, their destination is not Poland, but Germany. So, after axing all co-operation with Belarus, Poland and Lithuania had to take steps to handle the migrant problem. And the problem is serious. Look at Germany: they have reinstated controls on their border with Poland and some other countries about six months ago. They don’t trust them. Germans went so far as to accuse some neighbouring countries of violating the Schengen treaty. Germany de facto locked Poland out of some Schengen agreements that ensure freedom of travel across Europe,” Mr. Shevtsov explained.

Continuing in the same vein, the speaker added, “Some steps Poland has taken now look underhanded and corrupt. They have built the so-called iron wall on their border with Belarus to keep refugees out. But their flow is not stopping. That means the wall, and everything else that came with it, that entire cruel show, did not diminish the number of refugees streaming from Poland to Germany to any noticeable degree. Therefore, there have to be organised crime gangs in Poland who funnel these refugees into Germany. Poland is crawling with them. And the most dangerous thing: with those actions, Poles make their territory into a hotbed of human trafficking rings. And they are so powerful they can lobby for something like an expensive and useless wall, or troop deployment on the Belarusian border. That six kilometres wide strip of Polish territory along the border that no journalist or human rights activist has access to… who knows what’s going on there. When we see them throwing dead bodies of refugees over the wall, it’s nothing but a cruel show. In reality, people are being trafficked in force, and the flow is so strong Germans had to lock down their border with Poland. All that points to the Polish human trafficking rings getting to the very top in the halls of power.”