Between Humanitarianism and Security—The Events at the Polish-Belarusian Border

Abstract

This article presents the events that occurred on the Polish-Belarusian border in the second half of 2021 at the beginning of the refugee crisis on that border. The summer of that year saw an increase in attempts to cross the Polish border from the Belarusian side to seek refugee status in the EU (Since 2007, the border between Poland and Belarus has also served as the Schengen border). Public attention was first drawn to this situation by events in the village of Usnarz Gorny on the border with Belarus, where border guards detained a group of several dozen people who had crossed the border without Schengen visas. These people ended up sleeping out in the open for several days, caught between Polish and Belarusian Border Guards. They were citizens of Afghanistan and Iraq (Kurdish people)—men, women and children trying to reach Poland via Belarus. Subsequently, the border with Poland was crossed by citizens of different countries seeking refugee status. The situation at the border area became tense. The action of bringing refugees to the border with Poland turned out to be a Belarusian provocation, and the Polish government took radical steps to enforce a closed zone in the border area until 30 June 2022.