They made us lay on the ground – Bereket’s pushback

They made us lay on the ground – Bereket’s pushback

Why would they beat us? Why would they break our phones? Why would they hit us in a very inhumane way? Even the European Union said that they would accept every human being if they have a case. But why would they do such horrible things to us? Because we’re not criminals. We didn’t do anything. We were beaten like dogs. If Belarusian soldiers didn’t find us, one or two people might have died. And they beat us in a very harmful way that breaks our arms and our legs. And why is that necessary?

The last time Bereket tried to cross the border he was in a group of eleven people. After crossing the fence, six of them managed to escape, while the remaining five people, including Bereket, two men and two women, were detained after running about 300 meters away from the border fence into Polish territory.

Out of all the people in group two were beaten up very badly and very harshly. And it was snowing, the weather was not good. 

Bereket reports that in addition to being brutally beaten, he was also bitten by a dog:

 

…that first place that they [Polish officers]  hit me was my head. And after my head they beat me up in the face, then my legs, my hands, my arms, then the dog bit my hand. 

Bereket relays that the officers ordered him and the others to lay on the ground despite the snowfall.:

It was snowing this day and they[we] were supposed to lay on the ground. They made us lay on the ground […] for like 15 minutes or more.

As a result of the beating, just before being taken to the Belarusian side, Bereket lost consciousness:

Because I was beaten I lost consciousness, I do not remember well, but I layed down for around two hours.

Near the border, at the height of border post number […], there was to be a small structure described by Bereket as a „small house”. He remembers the officers staying inside the building while him and the rest of the group lay beaten on the ground outside.

At this point Bereket says that all people’s phones, chargers and power banks were taken away and destroyed. His phone had already been damaged during the beating when he was hit with the baton that smashed his phone. One other man had $300 taken away from him. In addition, sleeping bags were also taken from the group:

They took our sleeping bags for the cold, for the weather, winter weather.

After the pushback, on the Belarusian side, the group of five was found by the ‘Belarussian Army’. They were then put in a building where they could warm up and change their clothes. Bereket assumes that it was because of the severe condition of two people from his group in a result of the beating, that everyone was allowed to return to Minsk:

Two of us were badly injured and the Belarusian army found us. Then they put us in their house where it was warm, there were clothes and fire and everything and after that they let us go back to Minsk to heal at the hospital.