Poland is keeping three border crossings to Belarus open because they are important routes for the transport of goods between the EU and China But the trade is also benefiting Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko Oversized bags are hastily maneuvered onto two buses that are heading for the Belarusian city of Brest The Belarusian part of the station is barricaded with fences and Plexiglas «Passenger traffic to Belarus is suspended until further notice,» announces a red neon sign at the customs office of Terespol station travelers must use the bus instead of the train Although the station grounds are mostly deserted railroad officials and border guards around Tensions are running high on NATO's eastern flank the Kremlin ally that has been under authoritarian governance since 1994 This is about two kilometers farther to the east Freight trains from Chinese state-owned logistics company Yuxinou stand waiting on the station's tracks The fact that there is still so much freight traffic between Terespol in Poland and Brest in Belarus is surprising given the bilateral sanctions that the EU and Poland have imposed against the regime in Minsk Belarus is paying for President Alexander Lukashenko's bloody crackdown on the protests that broke out after falsified elections in August 2020 as well as for the dictator's hybrid warfare tactics Lukashenko's government arranged for refugees to be flown into Minsk and then transported to the border the Belarusian regime has supported Moscow in its annexation of Crimea in violation of international law and in its war of aggression against Ukraine Lukashenko even made his country's territory available as a staging area for the Russian army Poland has closed almost all border crossings to Belarus for trains It has become a center of cross-border goods and passenger traffic where freight trains and trucks can still cross There is additionally one bridge open for cars and buses This has become a bottleneck for passenger traffic at that time led by the conservative Law and Justice party imposed a state of emergency that erected no-go zones along the 418-kilometer border with Belarus These no-go zones have since been significantly reduced in size by Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s new liberal government The earlier conservative government also erected a 5.5-meter metal mesh fence as a means of gaining control over the surge in refugees from the Middle East Asia and Africa who were seeking to cross the border a migrant crisis that was artificially instigated by Lukashenko In June 2024, President Andrzej Duda visited Beijing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. This helped to ease the border tensions, as Duda recently said in an interview with the NZZ Duda indicated that he had threatened to close the border completely if large numbers of refugees continued to be smuggled to the Polish border via Minsk and Moscow «I asked Xi to use his influence in Moscow and Minsk in this matter,» Duda said in the interview The two freight border crossings in Terespol are important gateways from China's so-called new Silk Road via Kazakhstan to the EU A second train route takes Chinese container trains across the Siemianówka reservoir on the Polish-Belarusian border there has been no decline in rail transport volumes between China and the EU relative to 2023 according to the Polish State Railways service a total of 12,252 freight trains were processed in 2023 while this total had already reached 7,012 in the first half of 2024 container transport volumes between Poland and China doubled in the first half of 2024 rail transport accounts for just under 3% of trade volumes between the EU and China residents appear anything but enthusiastic about the sanctions «The politicians in Warsaw think they have come up with something clever but they have forgotten the people,» says a passerby in the city center the town focused its economy on serving cross-border shoppers from Brest and the surrounding area «Things were looking up until the COVID-19 pandemic and the Belarusian protests in 2020 Then there was an abrupt collapse,» says the manager of the Galeria Smakow restaurant the manager has a high opinion of Belarusians the sanctions have had a huge impact on the small town Poland's state-owned railroad freight company PKP Cargo was considered the best employer for a quarter of a century after the fall of communism in 1989 But the sanctions have resulted in many layoffs «The young people are migrating to Warsaw or going abroad straight away,» says the manager there are only a few jobs in the truck terminal near the border village of Kukuryki The oversized facility rises up from the harvested It was built during the late 1990s for far more optimistic times around 40,000 trucks per month were handled in both directions in the first half of 2024 Only a few tables are occupied in the truck stop restaurant Almost all the hungry truck drivers come from Belarus But no one wants to talk about why the kilometer-long lines of trucks once common here have disappeared «The damn sanctions are to blame,» says an angry driver from Minsk domestic politics sometimes produce radical ideas Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski threatened that Poland would close all of its border crossings with Belarus unless Lukashenko released well over 1,000 political prisoners especially given the large Polish minority in Belarus Poland has sought to refrain from rash actions Rocking the boat in this way could disrupt relations with China Xi is being trusted to mediate peace in Ukraine by putting pressure on Putin the railroad bridge over the river Bug toward Belarus which is guarded by a heavily armed soldier the apartment blocks of a nearby neighborhood are visible a border patrol jeep comes roaring toward me you can get picturesque views of the Bug legally somewhere else There's a state-approved hiking trail that runs along it.» According to the accounts of foreign nationals and human rights advocates working at the border crossing station in Brest-Terespol may migrants arriving at the border between Poland and Belarus have recently intended to seek international protection in Poland Border Guard officers ignore such declarations and deny the foreign nationals entry to Poland The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights published today a report on the monitoring visit conducted in early October at the Brest-Terespol border crossing station The monitoring action was a response to signals received by the HFHR over the recent months which concerned the Border Guard denying entry to Poland for those foreign nationals who express their intention to submit an application for international protection Pursuant to domestic and international law foreign nationals should be given entry into Poland in order to have their statements reviewed by the competent administrative body – the Head of the Office for Foreigners ­– which will then decide on whether to grant them the refugee status or subsidiary protection “The conduct of the Border Guard officers from the Terespol Station violates domestic law a lawyer working for the HFHR and an author of the report “Actions of the Polish Border Guard are a part of a wider shameful practice that is currently followed also by other countries of our region which involves pushing asylum seekers away from the European Union’s borders” Turned away from the Polish and Belarussian border persons seeking protection against persecution are forced to live in Brest and make subsequent attempts to submit an application for international protection Some of the foreign nationals interviewed during the monitoring visit by the authors of the report have been trying to submit such an application dozens of times “These foreigners are mostly families from Chechnya with many children Their situation deteriorates on a daily basis which forced them to live at a railway station in Brest” HFHR’s expert and the other author of the report “Many of these individuals are children” During the monitoring visit at the border crossing station the authors assessed the situation of the foreign nationals residing at Brest and conducted interviews in order to explore their reasons for seeking international protection and their experiences in contacts with Polish Border Guard “Many Chechens whom we talked to claimed to have been victims of persecution perpetrated by the Ramzan Kadyrov’s regime and feared to return home because of the danger they are exposed to in the country of origin There were victims of torture among these persons” The HFHR experts attempted to observe the process of filing an application for international protection at the border crossing station but the Border Guard did not allow them to do that the accounts collected by the HFHR and indirect observations show that the conduct of the Border Guard may lead to an illegal denial of the right to submit an application and entry to Poland for foreign nationals seeking protection Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights Wiejska 16 Street 00-490 Warsaw Tel: +48 22 556 44 40  (Monday to Friday from 10.00 PM to 2.00 PM) Fax: +48 22 556 44 50 e-mail: hfhr [at] hfhr.pl Privacy policy GDPR Industry news and insights from Europe and around the World Keep up-to-date with the latest new products and technology POLAND: Customs officers in Terespol claim to have prevented seven attempts in the last month to smuggle refrigerant R134a in the LPG tanks of motor vehicles Officers seized cylinders with a total capacity of 1,450 litres the vehicle drivers claimed that they did not know what was in the tanks they were only supposed to drive their cars across the border and leave them for a few hours at a designated location in Biała Podlaska Terespol is a border town in eastern Poland on the border with Belarus This is not the first time Polish customs have encountered this method of smuggling similar incidents being reported as far back as 2018 fiscal criminal proceedings were initiated and are being conducted by the Lublin Customs and Fiscal Office in Biała Podlaska.  Poland stops huge shipment of illegal refrigerant – 4 April 2019POLAND: Authorities in Łódź have intercepted a shipment of 25 tonnes of illegal refrigerant with a market value of around €600,000. Read more… Poland stops quota-busting shipment – 5 August 2018POLAND: Polish customs and tax authorities claim to have have stopped 5 tonnes of quota-busting HFC refrigerants from entering the country. Read more… Poland swamped by illegal refrigerant – 25 July 2018POLAND: A leading refrigerants organisation has reported a “massive inflow” of illegal HFCs into Poland. Read more… Cooling Post is the leading online resource covering latest news and developments in the cooling industry air conditioning news and the latest heat pump developments Privacy & Cookie Policy © Copyright 2025, Cooling Post Ltd - All Rights Reserved | Website by Capital Web The frontier station at Brest-Litovsk on the Polish-Belarus border This is the seventh in a series about train and bicycle rides from Switzerland to Belarus in those carefree days before pandemic lockdowns left Warsaw central station around 2:30 in the afternoon I didn’t quite know how I would get across the border Several times a day there’s a shuttle train from Poland into Belarus but I also figured that I could ride my bike the short distance (as the crow flies less than five miles) from Terespol to Brest although from long experience I know that nothing is ever easy when it comes to crossing East European borders (In December 2019 I had to walk from Albania into North Macedonia and then do the same between Greece and Turkey.) The landscape between Warsaw and Brest reminded me of the American Great Plains At least the sun was shining; on a bicycle Once these lands would have been part of the Pale of Settlement but now all I saw was the occasional village and the croplands of small farms out on the prairie Terespol is where my trip became challenging as I missed the last shuttle train across the border and was told that bicycles could not be ridden on the divided highway (slightly out of town) that crosses into Belarus Finally someone in the town square told me about a local bus that ran to Brest and pointed toward a stop until a crowded coach (everyone had packages) stopped in front of me and all of us waiting at the stop pushed aboard with lifeboat abandon I paid the $4 fare and sat with my bags in my lap and the bicycle piled in an open space near the driver as if we were crossing into the Underworld At the border (think of an autoroute gas station) I had to schlep my bags and the bicycle through a series of kiosks that marked the exit from the European Union and into Belarus there were duty-free shops selling mounds of vodka (Polish and Russian An hour later I got back on the bus for the ten-minute ride into Brest Some of the disembarking passengers on the bus stood around me as I pieced the folding bicycle together and attached my saddle bags Then I followed the directions that I was given for the Molodezhnaya Hotel (6 I could see the ornamental station from my street but to ride there involved a convoluted obstacle course over a bridge and down and around a cloverleaf The Molodezhnaya had everything I ever want in hotel life and tolerance when it comes to keeping my bicycle in the room and then ate dinner (“chicken surprise…”) in what felt like an Irish pub with a TV I did think about an after-diner ride around the darkened streets of Brest but by then the cold evening winds (this was March after all) were blowing (as if from Siberia) Brest-Litovsk – Brest – Brześć – Brasta – Berestia – Brisk – Lietuvos Brasta – Brześć Litewski – Brest-on-the-Bug I loved my two days in Brest although I never did figure out why it was called Brest-Litovsk during World War I and all googling has achieved is to find a string of names previously associated with the town small city on the Polish border where East meets West in Belarus (in a way the River Bug is the new Berlin Wall) Brest has little traffic and quiet back streets and to amuse myself I could wallow in the story of the 1918 Treaty of Brest-Litovsk which in World War I ended the fighting between Germany and Russia and which (for a treaty that no one remembers) had a profound effect on the configuration of the modern world The treaty explains much about the collapse of Austria-Hungary and the rise of the Soviet Union if not Germany’s obsession (which became Hitler’s ) of Lebensraum to the east as well as many of the issues that have defined the more modern Cold War I might be tempted to teach a course on its legacy (extra credit would be given for those coming to class on a bicycle and there would be a field trip to the White Palace) I biked through the downtown (lots of pedestrian streets and some monumental Soviet architecture) and headed in the direction of the railway museum (officially The Museum of Railway Engineering) inspecting the rolling stock that was parked outside including many engines with red stars under their head lamps The agent selling tickets at the front door served me tea The sleeping cars on display in the yards reminded me of my only trip on the Trans-Siberian (I was the speaker on a privately organized train from Moscow to Ulan Bator) on which I was quartered in a Belorussian sleeper I had a compartment to myself (the trip took eight days) and on the bunk opposite mine I lined up my books as if taking up permanent residence (which in some sense I was) On the Trans-Siberian there’s less to see than meets the eye (imagine endless country that looks like Kansas) I passed much of the time in the dining car standing at an open vestibule door that was partly covered with a wrought-iron gate (to keep people like me from falling out) I looked at model trains in display cabinets (one showed the Pride of Africa on its way from Dar es Salaam to Cape Town Then I got back on the bike and followed street signs to the fortress which was built across five islands in a strategic estuary between the rivers Bug and Mukhavets At one time the fortress guarded the Russian borderlands from western invaders (although Napoleon passed around it to the north and Hitler blasted right through it in summer 1941) Now the grounds of the fortress are a park containing six museums (each charge their own admission) but only one museum touches on the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and then only in passing The Soviet Union and now Belarus have never dwelled on Russian defeats and the 1918 capitulations I rode my bicycle around the massive Soviet-style park stopped for pictures of tanks and rusting artillery inspected plaques and hulking medieval gates sure that somewhere I would discover where Leon Trotsky had memorably negotiated with the Germans 1918 the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty was signed in the White Palace of Brest Fortress ceding an area 780 thousand square kilometers with population of 56 million Following the outbreak of the revolution in Germany the Soviet government annulled the Brest-Litovsk Treaty on November 13 Along with a few photographs of the treaty delegations Imagine going to Versailles and finding almost nothing about the 1919 Peace of Paris Where the story of the peace treaty comes alive is in the pages of John W Wheeler-Bennett’s Brest-Litovsk: The Forgotten Peace – March 1918 when the historian could still interview some of the participants in the negotiations It took me a long time to track down an affordable copy the only copies on Amazon were selling for $806 Finally I found an affordable paperback in the United States with heavy underlining in the first and last chapters; the rest of the book which tells the story of “peace without indemnities or annexations” (as Lenin so hoped) Wheeler-Bennett begins his history with the resignation of Tsar Nicholas II in March 1917 and carries the story (always set in Eastern Europe) to the armistice that ended the war on November 11 In between he dwells on the treaty negotiations that took place at Brest Fortress and—hard as it might be to believe—the book is a page turner In Russian history there were six months of uncertainty following the resignation of the tsar before the Bolsheviks came to power promising to end the war at any price when they renounced “secret treaties secretly arrived at.” Kerensky’s Provisional Government continued the Russian alliance with the West (with the stipulation that no member would sign a separate peace) and to fight the Germans along a front that stretched from the Baltic to the Black Sea and involved millions of soldiers most of whom saw no hope in the misery of the endless war Wheeler-Bennett writes of summer 1917: “Peace with Germany at this moment and the convoking of the Constituent Assembly would have removed one of the highest trumps from Lenin’s hand and would have done much to restore the confidence of the people in the Provisional Government the Provisional Government treated the world to a performance of political suicide.” continued fighting until the revolution swept him and his government aside in October 1917 (November by the new calendar) The decision by Lenin’s government to sign a separate peace with Germany ended any hope of proletarian revolution in Germany (Lenin was handing the German monarchy a stunning victory in the East) and the Russian surrender to Germany was viewed as a betrayal in the West which then had to fight alone the entire German army on the western front Wheeler-Bennett writes: “For what Lenin had decided upon was no less than the temporary abandonment of world revolution to save the Russian Revolution… Bolshevism was but a new form of nationalism to secure ultimately the eastern territories for Germany under the guise of self-determination.” The peace negotiations in winter 1918 at the Brest Fortress were like no others in history which his peace negotiator Leon Trotsky carried out brilliantly was to stop fighting but also to refuse to sign a peace treaty The Bolshevik goal was to consolidate power in Russia and tie up the Germans in endless palaver at Brest Fortress (while in the West the abandoned allies kept up the good fight in the trenches) Lenin’s slogans might have been utopian but his policies were as ruthless as Bismarck’s or Stalin’s Wheeler-Bennett describes the conversation in which Lenin dispatched Trotsky to the Brest frontier to engage the Germans in endless discussions on self-determination Lenin realized that to achieve this end someone of heavier calibre than [Russian diplomat Adolph] Joffe was required in charge of the operations “there must be someone to do the delaying.” Trotsky agreed The history of Brest-Litovsk had taken on a new aspect… Against the might of German militarism Russia had but one remaining weapon the incalculable capacity of the Slav for interminable conversation and this weapon Lenin was prepared to use to its utmost capacity while he prepared in secret for a strategic retreat The scene at the Brest Fortress took on the air of a university debating club The two delegations ate their meals together The Germans even supplied the Russians with a fleet of cars As it was the German high command that had repatriated Lenin and his revolution (on that sealed train) to tsarist Russia that they were playing with house money and that the negotiating wheels would be tilted in their favor It was the German high command back in Germany that drove the hard-line German position at the Brest peace talks While the Germans could militarily conquer Russia on the battlefield they were unable to defeat Trotsky in negotiations his huge forehead surmounted by great masses of black waving hair; his eyes strong and fierce yet with traces of much human suffering about them; heavy protruding lips Trotsky was the very incarnation of the revolutionary in caricature he was consumed with the flame of his ardour he could be charming in his rare occasions of good-humour but in his more usual attitude of contemptuous anger In his endless histrionics Trotsky was buying time for the revolution and calling the German bluff to occupy Russia militarily From this conviction sprang the germ of what Trotsky himself terms “that pedagogical demonstration ” which was expressed in the formula “We shall stop the war but we shall not sign the peace treaty.” It was necessary to test whether or not the Germans were able to send troops against Russia it would mean a definite victory with far-reaching consequences; while it would be possible to capitulate at the point of the bayonet There were subplots in the negotiations that complicated the positions of both side was on the brink of collapse and needed grain from the Ukraine to stave off hunger and revolution (of the Leninist kind) the Germans used the delays to bolster the negotiating position of an independent Ukraine which in turn would become a German satellite (If today you’ve noticed Russian troops mobilized on the Ukraine border you can see that we’re still having this discussion.) the German generals at the conference got fed up with Trotsky’s rhetorical flourishes and they imposed what in the East is known as a “Tilsit peace”—harsh terms of the kind that Napoleon had imposed on Prussia at Tilsit (in what is now Kaliningrad) in 1807 Wheeler-Bennett describes the terms of the 1918 peace: It was just five o’clock on the afternoon of March 3 when the ceremony of signing the treaty of Brest-Litovsk was completed By this agreement Russia lost 34 per cent of her population 54 per cent of her industrial undertakings and 89 per cent of her coal mines….At one stroke Germany had extended her control of Eastern Europe to the Arctic Ocean and the Black Sea… such was the price which Lenin paid for the salvation of the Russian Revolution Russia lost not only Ukraine but what we now call the Baltic states (then Livonia and Estonia) And if you are looking for a modern analogy to Brest-Litovsk keep in mind that after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 the West expropriated Ukraine and the Baltic states from the surrendering union of socialist republics (a tsarist empire of another kind) But consider this: after Lenin gave away the store to the German high command (which would then turn its guns to the west) Russia would not be trusted in western capitals for the next one hundred years Germany appeared to have been the winner at Brest-Litovsk It took occupied much of Poland and western Russia (loosely defined) and shifted its forces to the west for the great offensive of spring 1918 which failed only because the Americans arrived in Europe in time to turn some key battles (As Marine Corps Major Lloyd Williams said to a French officer who was ordering him back from the front lines near Belleau Wood: “Retreat it would be Trotsky and Lenin who emerged victorious at Brest-Litovsk despite their endless concessions to the German negotiators The Germans were now paying the price for the Napoleonic complex which had inspired Ludendorff in the negotiations of Brest-Litovsk creating and distributing kingdoms as had the Emperor of the French after the Peace of Tilsit Lenin had been more accurate than he had dreamed when he described the peace terms of Brest as a Tilsit peace It was true of both victor and vanquished…Yet there could almost be heard the voice of Nemesis crying through the Chamber the gibe that [Russian Karl] Radek had hurled into the indignant face of [German negotiator Max] Hoffmann but in the end the Allies will put a Brest-Litovsk treaty upon you” and it was called the Treaty of Versailles Next: The morning train to Pinsk. Earlier installments can be found here. The actions by the Polish authorities could lead to a transport collapse on both sides of the border, BelTA learned from the State Border Committee of Belarus Share on FacebookShare on VKShare on TwitterPoland cited public safety as a reason for closing the Bobrowniki checkpoint The Belarusian side believes that the pretext does not correspond to reality as there is no threat from the territory of Belarus the Polish authorities have closed international communication channels under various pretexts only 3 out of 6 checkpoints were operational which negatively affected the situation on both sides of the border and led to protests by Polish cargo carriers who had to queue for a long time due to the slow registration by the Polish side," the State Border Committee noted With the closure of yet another Polish border crossing the situation will become catastrophic and can lead to a collapse in the border area The work load on the remaining two checkpoints will increase dramatically Large trucks will be able to cross the border in the Polish direction only through the Kukuryki-Kozlovichi checkpoint passenger cars - through the Terespol-Brest checkpoint Polish citizens wishing to visit Belarus under the visa waiver program will be able to enter the country only through the Terespol checkpoint Since the launch of the visa waiver program for neighboring EU countries Belarus has hosted about 26,000 Polish citizens almost 10,000 of them came through the Bobrowniki checkpoint “The decision by the Polish authorities to close another channel of international communication is actually aimed at exacerbating the situation on the border and restricting mutual travel of citizens rather than ensuring public safety,” the State Border Committee said Feb 9, 2023 | Politics Poland has announced the indefinite closure of its main border crossing with Belarus, citing reasons of “state security”. It is also preparing further sanctions against figures associated with President Aleksander Lukashenko’s regime in response to yesterday’s jailing of an ethnic Polish leader by Belarus “Due to the important interest of state security I decided to suspend traffic at the Polish-Belarusian border crossing in Bobrowniki from 12:00 on 10 February until further notice,” announced Poland’s interior minister Bobrowniki-Bierestowica has been the only crossing for cargo operating in Poland’s Podlaskie province since November 2021, when Kuźnice crossing was closed down in response to the migration crisis orchestrated by Belarus authorities. currently only two crossing points – in Terespol and Kukuryki-Koroszczyn – remain open along the whole border with Belarus Z uwagi na ważny interes bezpieczeństwa państwa zdecydowałem o zawieszeniu do odwołania od 10 lutego br 12:00 ruchu na polsko-białoruskim przejściu granicznym w Bobrownikach — Mariusz Kamiński (@Kaminski_M_) February 9, 2023 in response to Andrzej Poczobut’s conviction the lower house of Poland’s parliament had passed a resolution demanding Polish and EU sanctions against “representatives of the Belarusian repressive apparatus” The resolution – passed unanimously by all MPs present in the chamber – noted that the jailing of journalist Poczobut was “the culmination of repression by the Belarusian authorities against the Polish minority in Belarus that has been ongoing since the beginning of 2021” he has “instructed the services subordinate to me to prepare applications for inclusion on the sanctions list of further persons associated with the Lukashenko regime responsible for repressions against Poles in Belarus” A Belarusian court has sentenced Andrzej Poczobut – a leading figure in Belarus’s ethnic Polish community and an independent journalist – to eight years in prison Poland called the verdict "an inhumane decision by the Belarusian regime"https://t.co/CNIAgj0LUw — Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) February 8, 2023 Poczobut’s jailing has also been condemned by the European and International Federations of Journalists which called it a “political verdict” and the Belarusian Association of Journalists which said it had “nothing to do with justice and is revenge on our colleague…for [his] dissent” In August, Poland’s foreign ministry summoned Belarus’s chargé d’affaires in response to the jailing of another journalist who worked for Polish state broadcaster TVP Poland notes that such actions have come in response to Poland’s vocal support for the Belarusian political opposition following the protests that emerged after Lukashenko’s proclaimed presidential election victory in 2020 Poland was brave enough to support us when others didn’t, says exiled Belarusian opposition leader Main image credit: Rakoon/Wikimedia commons (under public domain) Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications , , Karol Nawrocki even suggested that the state security services were involved in creating the scandal , , The 1,200 square metre national symbol was unfurled on the beach in Międzyzdroje , , The proportion of Poles saying the US has a positive influence on the world has also fallen to its lowest recorded level Apr 30, 2025 | , , , That response will include “large Polish and NATO exercises in Poland” Apr 29, 2025 | , , , Those employed in Poland work on average the third-longest hours in the European Union Apr 28, 2025 | , , , , Westinghouse and Bechtel were first chosen in 2022 as partners on the 192 billion zloty ($51 billion) project please consider helping us to continue and expand it [email protected] Copyright © 2025 Notes From Poland | Design jurko studio | Code by 2sides.pl Senior Research Fellow at the Global Europe Centre ARTICLES BY THIS AUTHOR Weronika Strzyżyńska is currently studying journalism at Goldsmiths as a Scott Trust Bursary recipient She  has written on issues immigration and Brexit for New Statesman and Prospect Agnieszka Wądołowska is managing editor of Notes from Poland She has previously worked for Gazeta.pl and Tokfm.pl and contributed to Gazeta Wyborcza ARTICLES BY THIS AUTHOR ARTICLES BY THIS AUTHOR Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland and assistant professor of history at the Pedagogical University of Krakow The Independent and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna ARTICLES BY THIS AUTHOR Stanley Bill is the founder and editor-at-large of Notes from Poland.He is also Senior Lecturer in Polish Studies and Director of the Polish Studies Programme at the University of Cambridge Stanley has spent more than ten years living in Poland He founded Notes from Poland in 2014 as a blog dedicated to personal impressions cultural analysis and political commentary He is committed to the promotion of deeper knowledge and understanding of Poland He is the Chair of the Board of the Notes from Poland Foundation ARTICLES BY THIS AUTHOR ARTICLES BY THIS AUTHOR Professor of European Studies at Oxford University ARTICLES BY THIS AUTHOR Professor at the Institute of History of the Jagiellonian University ARTICLES BY THIS AUTHOR Executive Director of Taube Family Foundation ARTICLES BY THIS AUTHOR Associate Professor at the Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Science ARTICLES BY THIS AUTHOR ARTICLES BY THIS AUTHOR ARTICLES BY THIS AUTHOR This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page 2020 shows a China-Europe freight train bound for Barcelona of Spain waiting for departure in Xi'an March 16 (UPI) -- A Frenchman was detained by Polish border guards after a search of his suitcase revealed shocking contents -- his Russian bride The guards said the couple told them the woman was hiding in the suitcase because they feared she would not be allowed to cross the border from Belarus to Poland due to her lack of European Union citizenship said the woman "was in good shape and wasn't in need of any medical attention." Sienicki said the man was unaware that his wife would have been allowed to cross the border because he possessed the proper documentation showing their marital ties "If she had traveled sitting next to her husband she would have gone through smoothly," Sienicki said "This was the first time I've seen someone travel like this She very well could have been a victim of human trafficking," Sienicki said Looking through the windows at Terespol train station on Poland’s border with Belarus About 60 asylum seekers are waiting to be back on a return train ride to Brest Polish border guards have just denied them the right to seek asylum in Poland Most of the group will probably make the journey from Brest again and again in the hope of being allowed into Poland to claim asylum But the majority will never make it to Poland and will be stranded in Belarus where they risk being found by those persecuting them back home I talked to one of the families when they returned to Brest is travelling with his wife and four children He said that all he wants is for his family to be safe: “If I didn’t have a big problem back at home [Chechnya] I wouldn’t go to Europe…My son was forcibly disappeared two months ago and now authorities are harassing us… I fear for my family.” Human Rights Watch published a report on how Polish border guards systematically deny asylum seekers the chance to lodge an asylum request at Terespol and send them back to Belarus The Polish Ombudsman and Polish and Belarusian human rights organizations have raised similar concerns The Polish government claims those it rejects are all economic migrants But people we interviewed told a different story blood feuds and political persecution at home And Chechens and Tajiks there risk harassment and worse by security forces from Chechnya and Tajikistan The Chechen leadership brutally pursues perceived critics and their families hundreds of supporters of the now-banned main opposition groups have been detained since 2015 their leaders chased abroad and families of those who dare to speak up in exile persecuted After another two days in Brest in late April it was clear that nothing has improved at the border People are still turned away after a cursory screening interview by border guards Each day a very few families are allowed to apply for asylum Polish officials said that merely saying “asylum” to a border guard doesn’t grant access to the asylum procedure since it might simply be a “code word” to get into Poland The border guards alone make the decision about who can lodge a protection claim though Polish authorities were unable to cite the criteria they use Our research suggests that many asylum seekers never see officials from the Office of Foreigners the authority under Polish law that considers asylum claims We know of several cases involving high profile activists journalists and relatives of persecuted critics who have repeatedly been pushed back to Belarus part of the evidence that the system is not working The disturbing border practice is in blatant violation of EU and international law has ignored abusive practices on Europe’s eastern border non-governmental organizations and even the UN High Commissioner for Refugees access to the area where border guards interview asylum seekers Border guards are free to take arbitrary decisions completely out of sight Polish authorities did promise to try to improve privacy during interviews since asylum seekers can easily overhear each other the bottom line is that anyone who expresses an intent to seek asylum should be admitted to Poland and have their claims decided by the competent asylum authority Arguments that some asylum seekers may use Poland as a transit country to get to Germany once they enter the border-free Schengen area is no justification for having border guards arbitrarily decide who can lodge an asylum claim Brussels should make it clear that failure to comply with EU regulations for the right to seek asylum in Poland will have consequences for Poland his family and all those stuck in Brest with good reasons for fleeing repressive regimes in North Caucasus deserve at least a reasonable chance to make their case Increasing Barriers to Accessing Sexual and Reproductive Health Care in Romania Poverty and Gender in Germany’s Social Security System Get updates on human rights issues from around the globe Human Rights Watch is a 501(C)(3) nonprofit registered in the US under EIN: 13-2875808 Euroradio In the hall leading to the border control zone but after 17 minutes the train Terespol-Brest will arrive and the room will be filled with people Among them will be a lot of refugees from Chechnya refused by Polish border guards and sent back to Belarus They are fleeing Chechnya for various reasons: from political persecution to lack of money Refugees go to Poland because they consider it the first safe country to stay in Today in Brest there are about a hundred Chechen refugees No one understands how the guards are guided one of the families entered the European Union on the 68th attempt Khava (names have been changed) agrees to talk to us and because of this she has had a number of problems in Chechnya since childhood: “My Chechen relatives were biased towards me My Chechen stepmother wanted to get rid of me All the time they told me: ‘Go to your Kazakhstan we are ashamed that you live with us here.’  if relatives treat a woman of the family badly •Chechnya head threats to ‘break the fingers, tear out the tongues’ of Dagestan residents protesting border changes •Frightened parents renounce their children while Chechen authorities persecute human rights advocates, LGBTI individuals and teenagers •‘It’s fine here, but we would still like to move to Austria’ Hassan is fleeing Chechnya for political reasons genocide … You try to keep your head down: if you cannot drink – you don’t drink if you can’t smoke – you don’t smoke but they still find something to get you with Ramzan Kadyrov always requires his subordinates to work [hard] I decided that it would be better to sign a contract than sit in prison for five to ten years in prison Hassan tried to flee to Poland through Brest but after thirteen unsuccessful attempts to pass the border he went to Kazakhstan That I would be immediately given to the police and given to Chechnya We were sent to protect oil production sites During this time there were several assaults on our battalion We did not even understand with whom we were fighting [Even people there] don’t understand who’s who It’s as if Assad is fighting terrorists by himself Amina is the youngest refugee we meet in Brest She says that this is usually a problem in Chechnya “Chechnya is a place where women have practically no rights he said that he himself would take me to have the abortion He said that I had disgraced our entire clan they would punish me by a Sharia court and that they would kill me Amina fled with her boyfriend to his homeland but after a few years he decided to leave and take the child with him She says that she will remain in Belarus if he cannot leave for Poland The first morning train from Brest to Terespol leaves at seven in the morning By 6:30 the station is filled with Chechen families We were not allowed by the Polish Foreign Ministry to visit the refugee camp in Biala Podlaska even from a distance it resembles a prison because of the barbed wire The camp is divided into closed and open sections escaped from the camp or tried to leave for another EU country In the open part of the camp are all the others including those who were transferred from the closed Near the camp we get acquainted with Khatuna from Dagestan She came to the Polish camp with her two children – Aziz Khatuna’s husband took on loans in Dagestan Khatuna had a large part of her body burned – she underwent several operations and skin was transplanted to her face from her hips we will go to another camp in the town of Linin [45 minutes from Warsaw] along with their father and other relatives The boys lost their mother during a shootout “You have probably heard about the war,” says Viskhan they managed to get to Poland on the eighth attempt so we were not allowed in,” Alekhan laughs Amin and his son makes another attempt and ends up in Poland As for money: they give us about 419 zlotys [about $110] a month This is not bad given the fact that they feed us here and we have a place to live.”  Viskhan left Biala Podlaski for another center – to the village of Vohyn conditions are better than in redistribution camps The rest of those we interviewed remain in Brest They left the Caucasus in the hope of a better life but on the way to the European Union they got stuck in a train between Belarus and Poland Euroradio thanks Human Constanta human rights organization for assistance in preparing this text who had repeatedly been refused an opportunity to file an application for international protection by the Border Guard have successfully challenged Poland before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg On 23 July 2020, the ECtHR delivered the judgment in the case M.K. and Others vs. Poland (applications nos The applicants were among the group of persons who received pro bono legal assistance at the border crossing in Terespol provided which was provided by attorneys from the Warsaw Bar Association working with non-governmental organisations such as the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights Association for Legal Intervention and Brest-based Human Constanta) together with fifty other persons represented by the lawyers from Warsaw The Court found that – contrary to the claims of Polish authorities – the foreigners had applied for international protection and that these applications were ignored by the Border Guard The ECtHR further held that the refusals had been a part of consistent practice at the Terespol border crossing which was confirmed by sources such as reports of non-governmental organisations (Association for Legal Intervention the Commissioner for Human Rights and the Ombudsman for Children The applicants obtained an interim measure from the European Court of Human Rights in which the ECtHR prohibited Polish authorities from returning the applicants to Belarus the Polish government decided to ignore the order attempts to apply for international protection The ECtHR found that Poland had violated the following articles of the European Convention on Human Rights judgment apply not only to the specific cases to which the judgment pertains The proper execution of this judgment should involve a change in the current practice of not accepting applications for international protection from aliens seeking protection in Poland at the eastern border of Poland the applicants are represented pro bono by Ms Sylwia Gregorczyk-Abram Ms Maria Radziejowska and Mr Jacek Białas of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights as well as by Ms Marcjanna Dębska and Ms Emilia Barabasz By 2019-03-24T06:00:00+00:00 BC also plans to carry out upgrades on the Svislach–Siemianówka and Bruzgi–Kuźnica border crossings POLAND: Hamburger Hafen & Logistik’s intermodal freight business Metrans has acquired CL Europort and its Malaszewicze terminal which is a hub for eastern European and Eurasian rail freight at the break of gauge on the border with Belarus ‘Malaszewicze represents a bridge between the EU member .. BELARUS: A contract for the supply of 15 Type BKG2 mixed-traffic AC electric locomotives has been signed by Belarusian Railway China National Electric Import & Export Corp and manufacturer CRRC Datong The €64·3m contract agreed on December 29 is being financed by Exim .. BELARUS: President Aleksandr Lukashenko officially marked the start of electric operation on the first 36 km of the 141 km Zlobin – Barbarou – Mazyr line with a ceremony at Svietlahorsk-na-Biarezinie station on June 21 The 25 kV 50 Hz electrification project cost .. Site powered by Webvision Cloud ​​​​​​​​​During a debate on the European Commission's Work Programme 2022 with European Commission's Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič CoR members requested that the European Commission ensure that local and regional authorities are involved in the implementation of the National Recovery and Resilience Plans in order to effectively address the pandemic's consequences on the ground Mayor of Terespol (Poland) said that better law-making means decisions should be taken as closely as possible to "Europe would come very close to its citizens and practically all willing citizens would participate in the development of support accelerating the creation of a civil society in a dialogue about a common European identity and the implementation of its policies if rural areas are seriously taken into consideration under programming and implementation process," he said Mr Iwaniuk added that initial debates on the future of Europe only showed that the problems of deepening development disparities concern most EU countries he pointed out to the CoR opinion on the Rural Agenda which has successfully resulted in a long-term strategy for the development of rural areas published today Improving epidemiological conditions are cited as the chief reason for the change The railway traffic in Slovakia should return to its regular operation as the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic ceases The national railway carrier Železničná Spoločnosť Slovensko (ZSSK) will be proceeding according to agreements with partner transport companies abroad in the coming weeks to facilitate the further renewal of international connections to neighbouring countries The aim is to renew almost all international ZSSK connections by June 13 when the second change in the 2020/2021 travel regime is set to take place ZSSK spokesperson Tomáš Kováč informed citing the continually improving epidemiological situation as the reason nearly the entire EuroCity (EC) Budapest-Bratislava-Warsaw-Terespol-Brest connection will be renewed The Terespol-Brest connection will not be renewed Bratislava and Budapest will also be renewed EC connections going on the track Brest-Terespol-Warsaw-Bratislava-Budapest will resume most of its normal operation on June 2 The connection Brest-Terespol will not be in operation the express train going through Žilina - Ostrava - Prague will be in full operation The train will be operated according to its original restrictions and in reality the train will be operated with its original restrictions Another full track connection will be an express train departing from Banská Bystrica through Žilina to Ostrava A return track will be in operation from June 14 The EuroNight (EN) train will also resume operations on its entire Prague-Humenné connection A reverse connection will be in full operation from June 14 The night train from Prague via Košice to Humenné will according to Czech Railways (the Czech state-operated railway carrier) resume from mid-June other missing long-distance connections going through Čadca or from Prague through Bratislava to Budapest that used to be in limited operation will resume ZSSK is also resuming its first few IC trains such as the one going from Košice to Vienna and back Trains IC 44/45 will be resumed from June 13 on the full Košice - Bratislava - Vienna track The operation of these trains was halted by a state-run railway company on November 3 2020 due to the worsening situation brought on by the pandemic After the renewal of most international connections Poprad-Tatry-Muszyna and the SuperCity (SC) train Pendolino Košičan connecting Košice to Prague the situation at the border between Poland and Belarus has become tense The actions of Alexander Lukashenko’s regime are an attempt to destabilise the situation in Poland and an instrumental game played at the cost of the immigrants We are responsible for the safety of Poles and the tightness of our borders at the request of the Council of Ministers President Andrzej Duda has issued a regulation declaring a state of emergency in certain towns and villages in the Podlaskie and Lubelskie Voivodeships The state of emergency has been declared for 30 days and concerns only an approx 3-km-long strip along the border with Belarus President Andrzej Duda has issued a regulation declaring a 30-day state of emergency in parts of the Podlaskie and Lubelskie Voivodeships The regulation has been issued at the request of the Council of Ministers the President has submitted the regulation to the Sejm Marshal Elżbieta Witek has set the date for an additional meeting of the Sejm; it will take place on 6 September The Polish Government and authorities are constantly monitoring and analysing the situation at our eastern border We are also taking adequate measures to ensure the safety of our citizens On of these measures is the declaration of a state of emergency Our goal is to make sure that our officers can act and perform their duties freely while the disturbance in the life of border region residents is minimal The state of emergency has been declared for 30 days It covers 115 towns and villages in the Podlaskie Voivodeship and 68 in the Lubelskie Voivodeship The steps have met with understanding and support on the part of local government authorities as we are taking them solely in the interest of safety of our citizens especially the residents of the border regions The situation at the border with Belarus is critical and tense Alexander Lukashenko’s regime is playing an instrumental game at the cost of immigrants 10 thousand Iraqi citizens have been brought to Minsk over the last few weeks 3 thousand people tried to illegally enter the territory of Poland and the European Union The Polish Government is responsible not only for our citizens and the safety of our country The border between Poland and Belarus is the external border of the European Union which we must protect in accordance with our obligations towards our allies Its breach would cause hundreds of thousands of migrants to enter the European Union - Regulation of the Council of Ministers of  2 September 2021 on limitation of freedoms and rights in relation to declaration of a state of emergency - Regulation of the President of the Republic of Poland of 2 September 2021 on declaration of a state of emergency in parts of the Podlaskie Voivodeship and in parts of the Lubelskie Voivodeship - Regulation of the Minister of the Interior and Administration of 2 September 2021 on limitation of the right to own firearms, ammunition and explosives as well as other types of weapons