Refugees or threat to EU? Belsat TV report about Chechen kids living at Belarus railway station

Over the past few months the nation has been witnessing a manifestation of the global migration crisis at the Belarusian-Polish border. Several thousand of Chechens – citizens of Russia – are stuck in the Belarusian city of Brest. They want to enter the territory of the EU and seek asylum, but Warsaw fails to give its OK. The people who have been repeatedly passed the border but denied entry to Poland are staying in Belarus. The migrants are running out of money and winter is just around the corner.

In its report, Belsat TV has focused on the youngest prisoners of the delicate situation:

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The building of Brest Station has turned into a school for the children of Chechen migrants. There are no desks, chairs or textbooks, but they have a teacher, volunteer Maryna, who comes to teach them from Poland. The kids have already learnt how to sing some songs and introduce themselves in Polish.

“Since July-June, Polish border guards have been refusing to let them pass [into the EU], as a result, a lot of Chechens is staying in Brest. Each family has 3 – 7 children aged from 8 months to 19 years. There are 19 kids living in the building of the station,” Vyachaslau Panasyuk, a representative of refugee support centre Human Constanta, said.

Some families are out of money. They used to rent flats, but had to move to the station then. They are unwelcome in Poland, but returning to Chechnya is out of the question – it would be too sangerous due to possible persecution, they state.

It is getting cold, they have no warm clothes. The Chechens had no idea they would have spent so much time at the station. The children start to catch cold. Indifferent residents of Brest bring tea, food, warm clothing and blankets. When one Chechen boy fell and suffered a brain concussion, a married couple took him and his sister to their apartment, where the children stayed for 2 weeks. However, occasional support and aid will not resolve the whole problem.

According to the Polish side, they accept asylum applications from every foreigner. The request may be denied only after a foreigner is interviewed.

“Checking a foreigner’s purpose of arrival and further stay in Poland is one of the main tasks of border guards during border control. It is a very important element of the security of the state,” Agnieszka Golias, Spokeswoman for the Head Department of the Border Service of Poland, said.

Why has Poland, which previously helped tens of thousands of Chechen migrants, stopped taking Caucasians in? Belsat TV asks with Krzysztof Liedel, director of the Center for Terrorism Research at Collegium Civitas in Warsaw:

“We realize that the Chechen national liberation movement no longer exists. Those who wanted to work for the sake of the Chechen state were killed by Russians – or they do not play any important role now. The Chechens have opted for violence, to achieve their goals.

Terrorism, i.e. their involvement in organized criminal groups and financing terrorist organizations, is the best illustration of their choice. That is why there has been a change in our attitude towards them and treating them,” the expert says.

The children stuck at the Belarusian-Polish border are hostages to big-league politics, Mr Liedel admits. According to him, Chechens keep delivering troubles to Poland’s secret services and police, which is the result of the asylum and migrant policy pursued in the past.

• Despair at Belarus-Poland border: Chechen migrants spend nights under open sky
• Aching for asylum in EU: Migrants from Chechnya stuck at Belarus-Poland border
• They are not refugees – Kadyrov about Chechens who stuck at Belarus-Poland border

According to Poland’s statistical data, over the past year the number of migrants from Chechnya, which is part of Russia, has doubled. During the first five months of 2016, nearly 4,000 Chechens applied for asylum in Poland at the border crossing point Terespol. For the same period last year, there were less than 2,000 applicants.

Belsat.eu