Sleepless Minds
We Have Space!
Comment on the border violence at the Polish-Belarusian border and Germany’s reaction
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People have been on the so-called Belarus route for months. The Belarusian dictator, Lukashenko, deliberately flies people in from war-torn countries and regions in crisis, dropping them at the borders with Poland, Latvia, and Lithuania. At the Polish-Belarusian border, the situation is particularly catastrophic. A restricted zone has been set up where journalists, volunteers, and doctors are not allowed to enter. People are trapped there — locked between two countries without access to water, food or medical care. Several people have already died, yet the number of unreported cases is undoubtedly much higher. Thousands are starving, cold, and thirsty. Those who make it to Poland are pushed back (i.e. illegally brought back across the border) usually with extreme violence. Although pushbacks are illegal under EU law, international law, and the Geneva Refugee Convention, Poland has now legalised them, justified by declaring a state of emergency. In other words, people seeking protection from war zones like Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq by asking for asylum in the EU are prevented from doing so — oftentimes by means of kicks, punches, and dog bites. This is nothing other than state-organised violence, i.e. torture.
So our neighbouring country tortures defenceless people, men, women, and children. And Germany? The media is chock-full of statements like “2015 must not be repeated”, “oh no, now again three Iraqis were picked up somewhere,” “Belarus is threatening the EU,” and “Saxony's Prime Minister Kretschmer is calling for walls and fences to be built.” In the border area with Poland, there is already a large deployment of police and, of course, no lack of far-right thugs who go to the border on their own to prevent people from entering Germany. It is pathetic.
If it didn’t have to do with humans, it would be quite ridiculous how the EU and Germany call out countries as rogue nations who don’t acquiesce to their dirty isolationist policies. In 2020, Turkey opened its borders to Greece, last summer Morocco to Spain, and now Belarus to Poland. The EU has made itself vulnerable to blackmail and presents itself as the victim of a vile threat from the evil neighbouring states. In truth, the EU has long since lost the ground of the rule of law. In its defence against people in need of protection, no dirty deal, no pushback, and no violence is too expensive. The EU and Germany are turning a group of people who come to Europe for the sole reason of survival into an unmitigated threat. No one sets out voluntarily on a flight — leaving their country, their family, their home, only to be tortured at Europe's external borders. By portraying refugees as a threat to be stopped by any means, the EU provides an opportunity for countries like Belarus to blackmail them.
Imagine Belarus flying in French, U.S. American, and Australian citizens and bringing them to the Polish border: Would it be seen as a threat or as absurd? Only the rhetoric and policy of the EU — based on agitation, racism, and neo-colonialism, causes a group of Syrians, Afghans, and Iraqis to be perceived as a threat. The solution is, therefore, not to build new fences and seal ourselves off further. On the contrary. The solution is to FINALLY create safe escape routes so that people from war-torn regions can enter the EU legally, safely, and exercise their basic human right to asylum. The smuggling networks, the power of Belarus, and the trafficking of human beings would be eliminated. People in need of protection would no longer have to risk their lives to apply for asylum. Europe's external borders would no longer be an area of violence, pushbacks, and torture. No one would have to starve, die of thirst or freeze to death at the borders.
Every single person who is stuck at the border, who is pushed back by force, and against whom German politicians are agitating, is first and foremost a human being. They are individuals, with his or her own dreams, desires, and goals, with his or her own personal history and experiences. The anti-human agitation and German politics hide behind numbers and figures and lose sight of the human being. It is not numbers but individuals who are tortured.
I was at a demonstration yesterday memorialising the death of Gailan Ismael, a 25-year-old who died on the Polish-Belarusian border. His cousin gave an impressive speech explaining the circumstances of his death. Gailan was diabetic. After two weeks without food and medication, he was on the verge of death. His two brothers and his five-year-old nephew begged the Polish border officials to give Gailan medical care so that he would not die. But they were merely laughed at. Shortly afterward, the young man died, just as a two-year-old and an eleven-year-old died a few days prior. Killed by Europe.
Reports from activists on the ground describe the unbelievable: children are getting weaker and weaker and have to eat twigs because they are hungry. One activist told me that they are only handing out dark jackets; tents or the like are not being used as people are pressing themselves on the ground to avoid being seen. They are surrounded by 12,000 Polish soldiers who use tear gas against them and are prevented with armed force by the Belarusian side from returning to Belarus.
Europe watches with laughter as people die. Every European who remains silent — who does not stand up now and does not speak out clearly against the border violence — tolerates, legitimises, and enables it. If you continue to remain silent, then you too will watch (laughing) as people perish miserably in front of our eyes.
We call on the new German government and all European governments to stand up firmly for human rights, for safe escape routes, and for the immediate end of pushbacks. People at the border between Poland and Belarus must be allowed to enter and apply for asylum. Germany must not introduce border controls or border fences, but rather accept people from Poland as an act of solidarity. We must not look away and ignore how innocent people are exposed to massive violence. What we have been experiencing in the EU for years is not a refugee crisis, but a crisis of humanity and the rule of law. But we are — and we will remain, loud until the EU finally acts according to the rule of law. No human being is illegal. We have space and we want to take in people seeking protection now!
People have been on the so-called Belarus route for months. The Belarusian dictator, Lukashenko, deliberately flies people in from war-torn countries and regions in crisis, dropping them at the borders with Poland, Latvia, and Lithuania. At the Polish-Belarusian border, the situation is particularly catastrophic. A restricted zone has been set up where journalists, volunteers, and doctors are not allowed to enter. People are trapped there — locked between two countries without access to water, food or medical care. Several people have already died, yet the number of unreported cases is undoubtedly much higher. Thousands are starving, cold, and thirsty. Those who make it to Poland are pushed back (i.e. illegally brought back across the border) usually with extreme violence. Although pushbacks are illegal under EU law, international law, and the Geneva Refugee Convention, Poland has now legalised them, justified by declaring a state of emergency. In other words, people seeking protection from war zones like Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq by asking for asylum in the EU are prevented from doing so — oftentimes by means of kicks, punches, and dog bites. This is nothing other than state-organised violence, i.e. torture.
So our neighbouring country tortures defenceless people, men, women, and children. And Germany? The media is chock-full of statements like “2015 must not be repeated”, “oh no, now again three Iraqis were picked up somewhere,” “Belarus is threatening the EU,” and “Saxony's Prime Minister Kretschmer is calling for walls and fences to be built.” In the border area with Poland, there is already a large deployment of police and, of course, no lack of far-right thugs who go to the border on their own to prevent people from entering Germany. It is pathetic.
If it didn’t have to do with humans, it would be quite ridiculous how the EU and Germany call out countries as rogue nations who don’t acquiesce to their dirty isolationist policies. In 2020, Turkey opened its borders to Greece, last summer Morocco to Spain, and now Belarus to Poland. The EU has made itself vulnerable to blackmail and presents itself as the victim of a vile threat from the evil neighbouring states. In truth, the EU has long since lost the ground of the rule of law. In its defence against people in need of protection, no dirty deal, no pushback, and no violence is too expensive. The EU and Germany are turning a group of people who come to Europe for the sole reason of survival into an unmitigated threat. No one sets out voluntarily on a flight — leaving their country, their family, their home, only to be tortured at Europe's external borders. By portraying refugees as a threat to be stopped by any means, the EU provides an opportunity for countries like Belarus to blackmail them.
Imagine Belarus flying in French, U.S. American, and Australian citizens and bringing them to the Polish border: Would it be seen as a threat or as absurd? Only the rhetoric and policy of the EU — based on agitation, racism, and neo-colonialism, causes a group of Syrians, Afghans, and Iraqis to be perceived as a threat. The solution is, therefore, not to build new fences and seal ourselves off further. On the contrary. The solution is to FINALLY create safe escape routes so that people from war-torn regions can enter the EU legally, safely, and exercise their basic human right to asylum. The smuggling networks, the power of Belarus, and the trafficking of human beings would be eliminated. People in need of protection would no longer have to risk their lives to apply for asylum. Europe's external borders would no longer be an area of violence, pushbacks, and torture. No one would have to starve, die of thirst or freeze to death at the borders.
Every single person who is stuck at the border, who is pushed back by force, and against whom German politicians are agitating, is first and foremost a human being. They are individuals, with his or her own dreams, desires, and goals, with his or her own personal history and experiences. The anti-human agitation and German politics hide behind numbers and figures and lose sight of the human being. It is not numbers but individuals who are tortured.
I was at a demonstration yesterday memorialising the death of Gailan Ismael, a 25-year-old who died on the Polish-Belarusian border. His cousin gave an impressive speech explaining the circumstances of his death. Gailan was diabetic. After two weeks without food and medication, he was on the verge of death. His two brothers and his five-year-old nephew begged the Polish border officials to give Gailan medical care so that he would not die. But they were merely laughed at. Shortly afterward, the young man died, just as a two-year-old and an eleven-year-old died a few days prior. Killed by Europe.
Reports from activists on the ground describe the unbelievable: children are getting weaker and weaker and have to eat twigs because they are hungry. One activist told me that they are only handing out dark jackets; tents or the like are not being used as people are pressing themselves on the ground to avoid being seen. They are surrounded by 12,000 Polish soldiers who use tear gas against them and are prevented with armed force by the Belarusian side from returning to Belarus.
Europe watches with laughter as people die. Every European who remains silent — who does not stand up now and does not speak out clearly against the border violence — tolerates, legitimises, and enables it. If you continue to remain silent, then you too will watch (laughing) as people perish miserably in front of our eyes.
We call on the new German government and all European governments to stand up firmly for human rights, for safe escape routes, and for the immediate end of pushbacks. People at the border between Poland and Belarus must be allowed to enter and apply for asylum. Germany must not introduce border controls or border fences, but rather accept people from Poland as an act of solidarity. We must not look away and ignore how innocent people are exposed to massive violence. What we have been experiencing in the EU for years is not a refugee crisis, but a crisis of humanity and the rule of law. But we are — and we will remain, loud until the EU finally acts according to the rule of law. No human being is illegal. We have space and we want to take in people seeking protection now!
