In this episode we speak with Ola, an activist from the Grupa Granica coalition in Poland about the situation for refugees, migrants and people-on-the-move at the country's border with Belarus.

 

She tells us how border guards on both sides are mistreating people-on-the-move there, about the ping-pong pushbacks across the border, and how the country's Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, plans to "temporarily" ban the human right to claim asylum. 

 

Ola also tells us about Grupa Granica's work supporting people-on-the-move with food, clothes and first aid, and how the authorities have treated the activists. 

 

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---Show Notes---

 

For more on Grupa Granica, see their Facebook page here: facebook.com/grupagranica

 

See their Instagram account here: instagram.com/grupagranica

 

For more on the Belarus border, see episode 33 with Dalia, an activist from the Lithuanian human rights and medical aid organisation, Sienos Grupe.

 

Ola mention Alarm Phone. For more them, visit: alarmphone.org, and find them on Twitter on @alarm_phone.

 

And check out The Civil Fleet's episodes 48, 5 and 3.

 

Read this France 24 news article on African people fleeing Russia's invasion of Ukraine being mistreated by the Polish border guards: france24.com/en/europe/20220228-pushed-back-because-we-re-black-africans-stranded-at-ukraine-poland-border

 

Read this FT article about the Afghans stuck at the Poland-Belarus border in 2021, here: https://archive.ph/RL4iK 

 

And this Amnesty International article here: amnesty.org/en/latest/research/2021/09/poland-belarus-border-crisis/ 

 

For more on the Ethiopian people who died at the Poland-Belarus border last year, see here: https://ecre.org/eu-eastern-borders-more-deaths-at-poland-belarus-border-as-reports-of-pushbacks-detention-and-crack-down-on-solidarity-continue-council-of-europe-concerned-over-pushbacks-and-criminalisation-in-lat/ 

 

Read this Al Jazeera news report on the Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk plans to temporarily suspend the human right to claim asylum here: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/10/12/poland-to-temporarily-suspend-asylum-rights-amid-belarus-border-tensions

 

Read about Finland's government also blocking the human right to claim asylum here: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/7/12/finland-passes-law-to-block-asylum-seekers-crossing-from-russia

 

And this Amnesty International response to it: https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/finland-emergency-law-block-people-seeking-asylum-should-never-have-passed

 

Ben mentions people in Europe being dubbed smugglers for giving food, water, first aid, etc to people-on-the-move. More examples of that can be found in episodes: 59, 58, 51, 50, 47, 46, 41, 37, 35, 28, 24, 20, 16, 13, 7, 4 and 2

 

Ola uses the phrase "Dublinned" in the episode. This is a reference to the EU's Dublin Agreement — which is essentially supposed to keep asylum seekers away from northern Europe. Check out this explainer video by The Guardian newspaper: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ooecJWPcAY&t=28s&ab_channel=TheGuardian