In the summer of 2021, after Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko enticed migrants and asylum seekers to come to Belarus and use it as a staging area for entering the European Union, the number of people trying to cross into the EU through the Baltic states and through Poland began to increase from the hundreds into the low thousands. And since that time draconian security measures, pushbacks, and the level of desperation of those caught between borders has increased along with the drop in temperature, leaving many freezing, starving, and stuck; pushed back and forth in a heavily forested “no man’s land” on the borders of the EU.
We speak with Sonia Nandzik-Herman and Douglas Herman, co-founders of ReFocus Media Labs, a Polish NGO that has operated on the Greek island of Lesvos for years. But after spending many months in Poland they’ll also be giving us an update on sitions there and an update on the current situation on Lesvos and on the Greek mainland, where many of the same policies are in place. We’ll also be learning where and how policies and tactics differ.
New York Times article referenced in the introduction.
Photo Credit: @grupagranica and @fundacjaocalenie
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