30/09: Group from Yemen stuck at Belarus-Poland border

01.10.2021 / 11:34 / Belarus/Poland

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 30th of September 2021

Case name: 20210930-BEL/POL003

Situation: Group from Yemen stuck at Belarus-Poland border

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Belarus/Poland

Summary of the Case:

On September 30, the Alarm Phone was alerted to a group of 15 people from Yemen, who were stranded at the border between Belarus and Poland. When we received the distress call, the group was already stuck in the border area for several days. It was reported that several people were sick. Videos shared with the Alarm Phone showed them being stuck at the border fence with border guards present on both sides. The people feared to die in the forest and reported attacks with dogs by Belarusian border guards.

At 12:14h, we publish a first tweet about the situation: SOS at the border between #Belarus & #Poland. We have been alerted to a group of 15 people. They are stranded & for several days without food. Belarusian forces threaten them with dogs. They can't move forth or back. Stop these deadly stand-offs & let them continue their journey! (https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1443519532035883017)

The day after, the people were still stuck at the border: “We are stuck. We are dying slowly”, they wrote to us. We alerted different authorities and organizations on both sides of the border, but without any concrete outcome. Many hours later, at 17:46h, the people were still stuck at the same location, without receiving any support despite their urgent call for help. Around midnight of October 1, we contacted the nearby hospital on the Belarusian city of Grodni, to demand medical intervention. At 00:50h of October 2, we reach the hospital by phone. However, they refused to intervene, claiming they had no ambulance, but assured us that local police would be informed.

At 02:41h, the people in distress sent us again their location: 53°45'53.7"N 23°33'10.9"E

At 07:45 the next morning, the people report about the violence they suffered from: “[…]the Poland guard push us back and the Belarusian guards threatened us not to come close to their border. We can’t talk with police or move out of this border. [...]. It is raining. We are freezing cold.”

As we found out later that day, the group had grown as 5 other people from joined them. Also the newly arrived were from Yemen. The group reported to have been stuck in the area for six days. Until Monday, October 4, we stayed in contact with the group and repeatedly sent alerts to authorities, hospitals and international organizations. Despite being aware of the unbearable situation of the people, the group did not receive any support. After we received another call for help of this group, we published another tweet: "It is like a prison life but without food." - this is what the people wrote us this morning. Since a week, they are forcibly stuck at the border between #Belarus and #Poland. Authorities on both sides are responsible for this situation - stop playing with people's lives! (https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1444985989978537987)

On Tuesday, we publish another tweet: The 15 people are still waiting for help. Red Cross is denied access to them, the people don't have food or water anymore. This is what European borders look like. (https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1445377038290927617)

Until today, we don’t know what happened to the people and could not establish contact to them any more. Despite having alerted local authorities, Frontex, Red Cross, IOM, UNHCR, local hospitals and many other actors, the people were forcibly held in this remote border area for days.

GPS positions: 53°45'55.6"N 23°33'11.9"E @ 10.00 CEST, 30.09.53°45'53.7"N 23°33'10.9"E @02:41 CEST 2.10.53°45'54.5"N 23°33'10.7"E @ 09.36 CEST 5.10.
Last update: 11:41 Nov 13, 2021
Credibility: UP DOWN 0
Layers »
  • Border police patrols
     
    While the exact location of patrols is of course constantly changing, this line indicates the approximate boundary routinely patrolled by border guards’ naval assets. In the open sea, it usually correspond to the outer extent of the contiguous zone, the area in which “State may exercise the control necessary to prevent infringement of its customs, fiscal, immigration or sanitary laws” (UNCLOS, art. 33). Data source: interviews with border police officials.
  • Coastal radars
     
    Approximate radar beam range covered by coastal radars operating in the frame of national marine traffic monitoring systems. The actual beam depends from several different parameters (including the type of object to be detected). Data source: Finmeccanica.
  • Exclusive Economic Zone
     
    Maritime area beyond and adjacent to the territorial sea in which the coastal state exercises sovereign rights for the purposes of exploring and exploiting, conserving and managing the natural resources, whether living or non-living, the seabed and its subsoil and the superjacent waters. Its breadth is 200 nautical miles from the straight baselines from which the territorial sea is measured (UNCLOS, Arts. 55, 56 and 57). Data source: Juan Luis Suárez de Vivero, Atlas of the European Seas and Oceans
  • Frontex operations
     
    Frontex has, in the past few years, carried out several sea operations at the maritime borders of the EU. The blue shapes indicate the approximate extend of these operations. Data source: Migreurop Altas.
  • Mobile phone coverage
     
    Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network coverage. Data source: Collins Mobile Coverage.
  • Oil and gas platforms
     
    Oil and gas platforms in the Mediterranean. Data source:
  • Search and Rescue Zone
     
    An area of defined dimensions within which a given state is has the responsibility to co-ordinate Search and Rescue operations, i.e. the search for, and provision of aid to, persons, ships or other craft which are, or are feared to be, in distress or imminent danger. Data source: IMO availability of search and rescue (SAR) services - SAR.8/Circ.3, 17 June 2011.
  • Territorial Waters
     
    A belt of sea (usually extending up to 12 nautical miles) upon which the sovereignty of a coastal State extends (UNCLOS, Art. 2). Data source: Juan Luis Suárez de Vivero, Atlas of the European Seas and Oceans

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