Global Courant 2023-04-17 19:31:44
A Syrian national is fighting for his life in a Polish hospital after falling off a border wall in his attempt to flee Belarus and find safety elsewhere in Europe.
Mohammad, now in an induced coma in Białystok, eastern Poland, was injured and hospitalized on April 7 after tumbling off the five-meter-high, 186-km-long wall built by Polish authorities last year.
Abdul, Mohammad’s brother, told Al Jazeera that his sibling broke his legs during the fall, leaving wounds that appeared to be infected, leading to potentially fatal complications.
He fears that a leg will be amputated to prevent the infection from spreading.
The doctor treating Mohammad has prepared Abdul, who has traveled from Cyprus to be at his brother’s bedside, for the worst.
“I don’t think we have a chance,” Abdul told Al Jazeera over the phone, his voice cracking with emotion. “He can die today or tomorrow.”
Mohammad, 58, lost everything in the Syrian civil war, including his home and two farms, said Abdul, who believes he was mistreated by authorities because a relative was a journalist.
Like other Syrian nationals, he escaped to Belarus, hoping to eventually reach a more stable European country.
However, Abdul said he was not yet aware that his brother was planning the perilous journey and has since discovered that Mohammad paid about $14,000 to be taken to the border.
“All that money, and for what!” Abdul told Al Jazeera. “I just want my brother’s wife, who is in Lebanon, to see him one last time. I feel very, very sad for her; I don’t know what to say to her.”
The Polish embassy in Syria, currently based in neighboring Lebanon, has not commented on whether Mohammad’s wife would be granted a temporary visa.
Renewed border crisis
Earlier this month, Mohammad attempted the treacherous journey thousands of other asylum seekers have made since October 2021, when a border crisis between Belarus and Poland intensified.
Belarusian authorities, mainly through travel agencies in the Middle East, were found to have promoted disinformation campaigns that offered a route to the European Union via Belarus. This was seen by Poland and the EU as a strategy by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko – the closest ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin – to destabilize the region.
Many from the Middle East attempted desperate journeys only to find themselves in another humanitarian crisis as the two countries rowed over responsibility.
Rights violations were reported on the Polish side of the border, with Polish border guards and police routinely pushing EU asylum seekers back to Belarus, according to civil society groups and grassroots organizations working in the border region.
Al Jazeera also reported on the victims of Belarusian border guards, who beat those returning from Poland.
Constant driving back and forth in the often damp, frigid forested conditions has led to at least 37 deaths since October 2021, activists say, but it is feared the real toll may be much higher.
The number of crossings has increased in recent weeks.
“Right now, the number of people crossing could be similar to October 2021,” said Antoni Mantorski of Grupa Granica, a network of pro-refugee groups working on the ground, saying warmer weather could be a factor.
The Polish Border Guard recorded 159 attempted crossings on Saturday.
“The same mechanisms” driving the border crisis are still in place, including Belarus issuing tourist visas and encouraging people to enter Poland, where they are then pushed back, Mantorski said.
“It’s illegal and it’s still happening,” he said.
‘I got scared’
Mohammad’s daughter, a German resident, said her plight was exacerbated by Polish hospital staff who treated her with suspicion.
“When I saw my father, I fell down in shock, but the doctor didn’t help me up. Instead, he asked me how my father ended up here,” she said.
She said the doctor called a policewoman who spoke German – which she speaks fluently – and demanded her documentation before accusing her of involvement in human trafficking.
The actions of the police, which she described as “obviously racist”, left her with a mixture of “shock” and “fear”.
She said the police officer ominously warned her, “It could be the last time you see your father.”
“I got scared; I thought they were going to disconnect my dad’s machines,” she said.
“Now, I’ve told all the police – don’t do this again. I just want to know how my father is doing, stop asking me how I ended up here.”
The police officer later apologized to her.
A spokeswoman for the Polish Border Guard told Al Jazeera that officers visited the hospital to confirm that the daughter was a relative and to check that she was legally in Poland.
Editor’s note: Al Jazeera does not list the family name or the name of Mohammad’s daughter to protect their identity.
