Adam’s Pushback. June 2024
-
Type of event:
Pushback
-
Location:
Poland/Belarus border
- Date : 06.2024
- Time: -
-
Number of people:
5
-
Demografics:
3 Syrian man, 1 Eritrean woman
- Women: 1
- Minors: 0
- Medical problems: heart attack, broken leg
- Asylym requested: YES
- Transportation to the BG facility? YES
-
Violence experienced (Poland):
Beating, forcing to sign documents, beating with metal batons, refused access to medical care
-
Violence experienced (Belarus):
not described
- Identified services:Ex: Polska Policja, SG
-
Adam, Syrian, crossed the border with two other men from Syria and a woman from Eritrea.
Our condition was very bad. I had a broken leg and my friend’s heart stopped. They called an ambulance for him.
One of Adam’s companions contacted a humanitarian organisation that sent a humanitarian field team. Adam and his friend received first aid and after that called the emergency line for the ambulance. The group wanted to apply for asylum in Poland.
When [people from] the organisation came my friend was in a very bad state. He was in a bad state because of drinking contaminated water from the swamps. His heart stopped several times. The lady from the organisation […] called an ambulance and gave him [unclear] medical. Then the border guards arrived.
At the Border Guard station where the group was taken the officers have reportedly coerced Adam and his companions to force documents stating that they do not wish to apply for international protection in Poland. Towards at least two of them – Adam and the person requiring medical assistance, the officers have reportedly used physical violence.
On the document it read, that I had been offered to apply for international protection in Poland to the Border Guard, and that I refused international protection in Poland. They forced us to sign this document. When I refused to sign they beat us with batons. Metal batons.
As he further relates the same thing happened to the man suffering from some health issues:
Same thing. When he refused they beat him and took to the forest.
After they signed the document the men were taken back to the border line in a vehicle.
They put us behind the seats, cramped like animals. They left us at the point far from where we crossed [the border]. We found ourselves in swamps [unclear]. Our condition was very bad.
Adam does not know what happened to the woman who traveled with them initially, because after the events at the border post she was put in another vehicle.
