How a Syrian refugee went searching for his parents along Poland-Belarus border

Scores of migrants are stranded in the border region between Belarus, Poland and Lithuania. A refugee based in Austria has headed to Poland in hopes of finding his father and mother. Magdalena Gwozdz-Pallokat reports.

Syrian refugee Haval Rojava* has not seen his parents in 12 years. The 33-year-old Kurdish man has been living in Austria since 2009, working as a self-employed hairstylist and creating a new life for himself. His brother lives in Austria as well, and they have two sisters living in Germany.

But Rojava has been hit by anxiety attacks since losing contact with his parents. For several days now, his 55-year-old mother and 60-year-old father have been stranded somewhere in the forests between Belarus and the European Union states of Poland and Lithuania. They have no food, water nor medicine.

Whenever they could, the two had charged their smartphones to communicate with the outside world. Twice, Rojava traced their location with the help of a special smartphone app. But for the past few days, he has not heard from his parents.

"It was a bad idea for them to travel to Belarus," he says. Now, Rojava has journeyed all the way to Poland, near the Belarus border, hoping to find them.

"My parents did not come to Belarus for the money, or to flee the war," he says. Instead, Rojava says, they came purely to see their children after so many years apart. "And the only reason they are stuck in this situation is that my parents wanted to see us."

Rojava says they bought their flight tickets to Minsk at a Syrian travel agency. Offers like these are easy to come by in the country, and he supported their plan.

Distrust toward Muslims

Rojava fled Syria over a decade ago because he had no stake in the war, and wanted to avoid military service. Avoiding the draft, however, means he now faces the death penalty in Syria. But it's not the only danger he faces.

"If an IS ["Islamic State"] member stopped me, he would kill me, if he found out I am Kurdish," he says, pointing out the paradox: "When we run from the fundamentalists because they want to kill us, and arrive at Europe's borders [seeking safety], they tell us we are Muslims, turning us back."

In Poland, Rojava met Magdalena Luczak, an activist with Poland's Grupa Granica — Border Group — aid agency that puts together care packages for migrants. Luczak says Rojava had no idea what he was getting himself into.

"He did not know a state of emergency has been declared for the border region, and he was unaware not even Poles are allowed inside the exclusion zone unless they have a permit," she says, adding that he was shocked when he found out that even her aid agency was powerless. "He thought he could walk up to the border and throw food, drink and warm clothing over to his parents."

Luczak doubts Rojava will find his mother and father. She thinks they could have been subject to several so-called pushbacks.

Luczak says the developments along the border are "far worse" than what she had expected. She says what is happening is not a "flood of refugees" but a question of individual experiences. "Nobody is asking us for financial support — all they are asking for is help to survive, and to make it to a safe country."

Rojava, meanwhile, tells DW his parents are well-off and do not need financial help. "No one poor can afford to buy a ticket for €16,000 ($18,500) or €20,000," he tells DW.

"Show me a single Polish person, or European, who could buy such an expensive ticket — all these people stuck in the border region have money, but that doesn't protect you in a war," he says.

Growing border tensions

Tensions between the Polish and Belarus sides have been growing. Poland's Defense Ministry recently reported that Belarus officers had fired warning shots, damaged the makeshift barbwire border fence and encroached on Polish territory.

There are plans to erect a tall steel wall, about 5 meters (16 feet) in height, topped with barbed wire, on the Polish side — an external EU border. It could be ready by next year. The fortification will be partially fitted with motion sensors and cameras.

"The structure we are planning along Poland's border with Belarus symbolizes the determination of the Polish state," Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski said in early November. He also said the ongoing influx of illegal migrants to the country from the east had no "natural causes" — instead, he said, it represented a form of "hybrid warfare" waged by Belarus ruler Alexander Lukashenko against Poland.

Rojava, meanwhile, says his encounters with Poles have been entirely positive. He says many locals want to help the migrants stuck on the Belarusian side of the border. Rojava does not, however, understand the tough stance of Poland's decision-makers. "I don't comprehend how they can sleep at night, they have families of their own." 

After all, he says, during the Nazi occupation, the Polish people experienced a similar situation as Syrians today.

In early September, Poland banned journalists from entering the exclusion zone 3 kilometers (about 2 miles) along the border. Reporters cannot, in other words, observe with their own eyes what is happening there.

It's easy to get a sense of how tensions are growing, however, just driving through nearby forested areas. Here, police are permanently on patrol, pulling over cars with foreign license plates. 

Katarzyna Zdanowicz from the Polish Border Guard in Bialystok says Rojava's case is no exception. Many people with EU residency permits have recently traveled to Poland to meet their relatives, she tells DW.

"But we also know of criminals who are exploiting this situation, who want to collect migrants at the border for several thousand euros per person and then transport them onward in the country," she says.

Because of the uncertain situation, Rojava has no idea how long he plans to remain in Poland. But he adds: "Of course, Poland and Belarus are having problems — but that's not the fault of the people stuck in the woods."

Some good news, at last

Shortly before this article was finalized, activist Magdalena Luczak informed DW via telephone that Rojava's mother had been treated in a Polish hospital. Rojava and his mother were finally able to see each other for the first time in years, albeit briefly.

Luczak says Rojava's mother is now in Bialystok and has found shelter in a facility run by Poland's Dialogue Foundation, which looks after migrants who are sick. The Polish Border Guard has also confirmed that she has filed for asylum in Poland.

It appears that Rojava's parents may have lost each other in the border area, before his mother crossed over into Poland. Rojava still doesn't know where his father is, or how he is doing.

*Name has been changed

This article has been translated from German