Belarus-Poland border: Five years on, villagers recall migrant crisis

In the small Polish village of Usnarz Górny, close to the Belarusian border, residents still vividly recall the events of August 8, 2021, when 32 Afghans seeking to enter Poland were turned back by Belarusian and Polish border guards. Five years on from the initial crisis, the memories remain sharp for locals like Krystyna Popczynska.

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I was out of the village to see what was happening. There were only adults. They were sitting there, on the border line… They also had a cat.

Popczynska remembers seeing adults gathered at the border line, noting the presence of rifles among the Belarusian guards. "The Poles? Nothing," she recalled, describing how Polish guards used large flashlights to search for migrants during the night. Her mother, 92-year-old Helena Ejsmont, also remembers the visitors who came to their home for coffee, including journalists and aid workers documenting the situation. A photograph on their refrigerator shows her great-grandson posing with a journalist from that period.

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The Belarusians had rifles. The Poles? Nothing. At night, they were looking for migrants with big flashlights.

The incident, which lasted about a month, involved migrants being pushed back across the border, a practice then illegal under both international and Polish law. Usnarz Górny became a focal point of international attention during this time. The villagers, living just a hundred meters from the border, were directly exposed to the unfolding humanitarian situation.

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It lasted a month.