Eastern European countries have long been preferred entry points for illegal Indian migrants seeking to enter and stay in the European Union. However, the ongoing turmoil at the Belarus-Poland has cut off these illegal migrants’ main route.
Many of these settlers have been caught up in the border crisis, possibly unaware of the magnitude of the situation. Migrants began flocking to Belarus in huge numbers this summer, trying to enter the EU.
The EU, NATO, and the US claimed that Belarus’ president, Alexander Lukashenko, had deliberately led to the border crisis with Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia in retaliation for sanctions imposed on his country for the brutal crackdown on opponents and citizens.
Four men of India, Punjab, crossing overseas for the first time, after being held by Poland’s border police in late November, were among those abandoned at the crossings.
According to a source in Belarus requesting anonymity,” They expected to arrange some sort of rescue team, which is not in my hands.”
After reaching the border, one of four people send a voice message, “Hello, sir. Please help us. We’re four people in the bush, and we’ve been famished for a long time. We haven’t eaten anything for the last three days and haven’t had a drop of water to drink. Our two other friends have already fallen to the ground and are dying.”
While they were more focused to caught other nationalities at the Polish Border in the mod of crisis, in October, the guard of the Polish Border announced that they had arrested 16 Iraqis, two Indians and one Syrian at the border, even as there were 11,300 attempts by Belarusians.
From four people, one is from a village of Samana district, Punjab and one is from Jalandhar, one is from Ludhiana, and one is from Jamsher. A statement given by the father of Hardeep states that, “my son is facing difficulties here in finding a job. He filled numerous forms for the army, and the police, private companies etc., but nothing happened.”
“Then we took this step to send our son abroad to Russia. He lived and worked there for 1.5 months, and then suddenly, from nowhere, he decided to cross the border.”
The four Punjabis were stuck at the border, texting everybody they knew in Europe and Russia. Sharma, an Indian national living in Portugal, received one of these messages. “I haven’t slept in a week and haven’t been away from my phone,” Sharma added, that someone they met in Russia had given him his phone number.
Sitting in Portugal, “I tried my best to help them, but the situation turned like I was helpless.” They used a donkey, says Sharma. “It is a code term,” Sharma remarked, referring to the four soldiers who were stranded between Belarus and Poland.
They utilised a donkey,” says the narrator.
