Poland-Belarus border: The people pushed back in a Polish forest

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

66% : They have been charged with organising illegal immigration and could serve eight years in prison.
56% : In contrast to the behaviour of the border guards, Mahir noted he had a kind face and listened quietly to their story.
52% : Hasan believed that, unlike Russia or Belarus, a number of countries in the EU would fairly consider his request for asylum.
50% : They had just succeeded in crossing into the European Union via Belarus, the final stage of a journey that had started in their respective homelands, where they had faced persecution and political unrest.
45% : Initially, he had planned to seek asylum in the EU or Canada, but the process could take considerable time, something he did not have.
45% : But just a few hundred kilometres north, non-European refugees and migrants are still being pushed back in the forest and detained by the same border authority while the state touts the construction of a border wall.
44% :Mahir and Hasan were searched, their phones and documents confiscated, before being driven to a small base for border guards.
43% : Mahir says he told the guards, in near-fluent English, that they would not sign the Polish document as he did not understand the local language and laws, declaring instead that he wanted to seek asylum in Poland.
42% : Within minutes a vehicle with four border guards screeched to a halt in front of them.
40% : Well-informed and articulate, Mahir was proving to be a difficult case for the border guards, and the atmosphere grew tense.
40% : The location is too difficult for local volunteers to reach, and Maria believes that people may have died there because humanitarian workers cannot reach them and as a result of what she sees as a culture of indifference among military personnel, border guards and emergency rescue services toward people trapped along the border.

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