They take your clothes, your coat, and they take away your shoes as well. This is even worse than beating. Dahir’s seven pushbacks.

Originally from Somalia, 17-year-old Dahir was pushed back from Poland to Belarus seven times, as well as twice from Latvia to Belarus. He made his last attempt to cross the border on the night of October 20th. He was caught and pushed back by Polish officers on the morning of October 21st. He describes this pushback in detail in his account.

Dahir had been making attempts to get to the Polish side of the border since October 16th together with eight other people. His group consisted of five people from Somalia and four people from Syria. Most of the people in the group were between sixteen and eighteen years old. Two underage girls from Somalia and one woman from Syria were travelling with them.

According to Dahir’s account, the group was stopped by Belarusian services and forced to cross to the Polish side of the border during the night of October 20th-21st:

We walked to the Belarusian border, and the Belarusian guards caught us, and immediately the[y] started beating us and they sprayed us with pepper spray and they put us in a small vehicle that fit probably three people, all 9 of us. They drove us then for 40 to 50 minutes, later they let us out from the vehicle and … they asked us, “where you guys going?”

We told them that we were going to the Polish border, and after driving for 40 minutes they let us out from the car and they told us, “Ok, run and there’s Poland.”

We ran, and there was a river and cold water, and we crossed over to Poland, and our group kinda divided. I only went with one Somali boy and one Syrian guy and we ran…

On the morning of October 21st, after separating from the rest of the group, Dahir and two travel companions who stayed with him decided to call for assistance. The Syrian sent their location to a humanitarian organisation. Five minutes later, Dahir spotted a drone above him. Moments later, the group was caught by eight or nine officers, whom Dahir recognised as Polish Border Guards:

When the Syrian boy shared his live location, shortly a drone came to where we were, and it was… it stood still, facing us for a while and I realised that they found us, this is when I started running, and I was shot with rubber bullets, and they came and they sent the dog on the Syrian guy. Also the Somali boy didn’t run, he was lying where he was, and they came and they started beating him. Starting from the beginning when they came, I ran and they shot me with two rubber bullets to the back and I fell over and didn’t manage to get up from where I fell, So they came to me and immediately they didn’t stand me up but rather they started kicking and stepping on me. While they were doing that, there is one word that I can remember from what they were saying, it was the word ‘kurwa’ and they kept kicking and stepping on me. And from what I could guess, the number of people hitting me was 3 individuals. And after a bit they stood me up and started talking to me but I couldn’t understand what they were saying to me. Then they began punching me on the cheek and after on the belly. This whole process I fell over from a branch and injured my hand, and this is the main reason why I haven’t been able to attempt another travel, I haven’t been able to find good medical assistance for my hand and it still has issues till now.¹1

Soon over, what I would guess to be the EU guards²2 came and they confronted the Polish guards because they’ve seen what they were doing to us, and they seemed to have an argument over their actions.

The second group of officers allegedly consisted of seven people. The interviewee describes that before the pushback, his group was searched and the officers stripped the detainees down to their underwear. When they were done, only one layer of clothing was returned to them. The officers also took away their shoes and destroyed their phones:

We didn’t have any food or money, we only had our phones and our clothes which they took, and just gave us back the clothes that I described, they took our shoes, they didn’t give us our shoes back.

And when we met our previous group mates, their shoes were just torn up, and it was no longer capable of function as shoes, for so they took our shoes and the other group they torn their shoes.

Dahir and his companions tried to talk to the officers who detained them and told them that they wanted to apply for international protection in Poland. At first, the officers ignored the detainees, but eventually began to beat them. This led Dahir to give up trying to engage in conversation:

When they were bringing us back over the border, we told them that we were asylum seekers and we explained that we weren’t intending to cause any trouble, and that we are

people in need for help and assistance and some of them who spoke English, we were explaining them, but they were not interested in hearing this. Initially they would say, “come to the country legally or come to the country the correct way.”

We told them that we are poor people who do not have good enough passports to come to the country, or who are not able to cover the expenses of the whole process. We told them that you are aware of the situation of these countries that we came from and there’s no hope or future for us there and we are just looking to get a future for us in Poland.

They were talking to us initially but after, when we attempted to ask them a question or to explain a situation or try to appeal to them. They would hit us or punch us or kick us and this led us not to bring up a conversation with them further.

According to Dahir’s account, the group was forced to cross the border back into Belarus in a swampy area, about twenty-thirty steps from the river³3:

When they were dropping us into the Belarusian side, there was a river nearby, and that body was lying there. I would guess the individual to be an Arab as his skin was lighter. And when they drop you, they take your clothes, your coat, and they take away your shoes as well, and this is even worse than beating as when it’s cold… this can be the cause of your death, it’s like they are dropping you to your death. And we didn’t have any phones as the guards had taken and broken our phones.

But members who we had split up with and we have been able to meet in that area, also they saw the body and they had a phone and they [took a] picture of that body⁴4…

I would also like to share that there’s one Somali boy who I had started this journey with and who also attempted to cross many times with. His body was found in Latvia. […]  I also have a picture of the dead body of the Somali boy⁵5 as I have pictures of the body in the river we saw. When the Belarusian guards catch you sometimes, they would throw you on the Latvian border which is far from crossing and at this time we haven’t eaten for 7-8 days and you’re hungry and tired and this is what they would do to you.

Dahir also talks about a case involving Polish officers forcing detainees to move an unconscious woman from Somalia to the Belarusian side of the border⁶6:

Also there is a Somali woman who was thrown from the metal fence at Polish border crossing, and when she fell she basically broke her hands and fell into a coma, and the Polish guards gave her body to the people who they had caught and they asked them to take her back with them to Belarus. But she was in a coma and she had broken hand. And they asked these guys to carry her on their backs to Belarus and also on the other side.

What I would also further like to share is that… what is more than founded people is the people who we are not sure where they are, people who are uncounted if they are dead or alive. Also there are countless women with young children, and they constantly try to ask for help but nobody would help them. Even when the Belarusian guards catch them, they would not care that they have kids and they would still beat them. There are countless young girls, who don’t know how to fund themselves or where to find items to live on.

Notes:

1.   After the interview the respondent sent a picture of a bandaged hand and an x-ray picture with a visibly broken bone.
2.  Frontex (the European border security agency) has not been engaged on the Polish-Belarusian border. The respondent reported that the officers from the second group did not wear blue armbands, a characteristic element of forces deployed as part of Frontex’ missions.
3.  At the location where the interviewee was pushed back, the river does not run along the border but crosses it. It is not clear whether the interviewee had to cross the river or not.
4.  The picture of the body has been archived.
5.  The picture of the body has been archived.
6.  It is not clear whether the interviewee witnessed the incident or whether it is a story they heard from someone.