The Daily: “I was dying there in the forest”

November 19, 2021

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The Big Idea: What's Next for the Migrants in Belarus?

The Daily strives to reveal a new idea in every episode. Below, we go deeper on one of those from our show this week.

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By Lauren Jackson and Monika Pronczuk

Surrounded by two Polish border agents, Nassar Masour, 42, a refugee from Syria, rested in a hospital bed on Friday in Bielsk Podlaski, eastern Poland, after crossing from Belarus.Mauricio Lima for The New York Times

The ancient Bialowieza Forest, one of the last wild places in Europe, is quiet. Scattered among the moss and lichen are emptied backpacks, wet blankets and a forgotten ophthalmology prescription written in Arabic. These are the visible remains of the humanitarian and geopolitical crisis manufactured by President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko of Belarus, often called "Europe's last dictator."

Thousands of migrants have been lured to Belarus from the Middle East with flights and visas, then pushed to the border with Poland — part of the European Union — in an effort to create diplomatic leverage for Mr. Lukashenko. As you heard today, the migrants' future is uncertain.

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An unknown number of migrants remain hidden in the forest, and some have silently died of exposure while cut off from aid workers and medical assistance. Others who had been living in a makeshift camp were relocated this week to a warehouse just outside the Bruzgi border zone. Though around 400 Iraqi migrants have been sent back to their home country, many still hope to reach the European Union. If they can't cross the Polish border, some migrants say, they will consider settling in Belarus, leaving Mr. Lukashenko to assume responsibility for the crisis he created. But will he allow them to stay?

"What happens depends on a decision from the president," Yuri Karayev, a former interior minister in Belarus who is now an aide to Mr. Lukashenko, said in an interview at the new holding center for migrants, acknowledging Mr. Lukashenko's iron grip on governmental policy.

"Lukashenko will likely make sure that asylum seekers do not apply in Belarus," Alena Kudzko, vice president of the policy institution GLOBSEC, said, noting that Mr. Lukashenko faced minimal pressure from his supporters to accept migrants. Belarus is a predominantly Orthodox Christian nation with little precedent for accepting foreign immigrants. Like Poland and other Eastern European countries, the country has been generally hostile to non-Christian settlers from outside Europe.

On a visit to Warsaw last month, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the exiled leader of the Belarusian opposition, said that between 10,000 to 15,000 migrants had already arrived in her country and would become "a huge problem for Lukashenko" if they remained stuck in Belarus. "He has to deal with all these people somehow," she said.

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Mr. Lukashenko has shown a proclivity for violence when responding to public unrest, brutally cracking down on protesters. He deploys an all-seeing domestic security apparatus to monitor the public. To Ms. Kudzko, this poses a risk for migrants who try to evade detection and stay in the country.

Ms. Kudzko also said that Belarus did not have a system to integrate immigrants, "nor is the government interested in dedicating already dwindling resources to such a course." She added: "Many of them risk being forcibly removed, or their life will be made so unbearable in Belarus that they would prefer to go anywhere else they can, including back home."

Ms. Kudzko added that Mr. Lukashenko might strategically allow a select number of migrants to gain asylum. "That can be used as a nice narrative for state media," she said. "Contrary to the E.U., the story would go, Belarus is helping humanitarian causes. This number will be very small, though, and will be curated carefully."

The problem is likely to persist for months and to grow as more migrants arrive. The Times heard numerous reports of Polish police officers who were pushing asylum seekers back into Belarus after they made it into Poland.

Times journalists asked Katarzyna Zdanowicz, the spokeswoman for the Polish border guards, about a group of migrants whom they saw being loaded on a military truck and driven to the border guard office. Ms. Zdanowicz responded, "Eleven people did not seek asylum in Poland. They wanted to go to France or Ireland. They received an order to leave Poland. They were escorted to the border line." The Polish police posted pictures of the group on Twitter on Thursday, writing, "The group was taken care of by police officers, who gave them food and water."

The Times was blocked from verifying those reports but witnessed two people applying for asylum with border guards at a hospital in Bielsk Podlaski, Poland.

Nassar Masour, a 42-year-old Syrian man, and Hama Aland Omed, a 20-year-old Kurdish man from Iraq, asked for asylum inside the emergency room. "I just want to save my life," Mr. Aland Omed said. "I was dying there in the forest," he added, sobbing on the hospital bed. "Please help me."

Soon after, Polish border guards transported the men to the local headquarters — and toward an uncertain future.

Do You Have a Story About Seeing Your Parent Differently?

Sometimes all it takes is one incident to upend the image we have of our parents.

Share with the Modern Love podcast a time when you saw a different side of your parents or elders. Send a voice recording (no more than two minutes) with your story to modernlovepodcast@nytimes.com. Start by telling us your full name and where you live. Your story doesn't need to be completely polished, but it should have a beginning, a middle and an end — and it must be yours.

You can find more information here.