Poland Belarus Migration Crisis

A keffiyeh and other personal items are seen left in the woods in the exclusion zone near Czeremcha, Poland on August 21, 2021. According to estimates by the ministry of the interior some 40 thousand migrants have attempted to cross the border from Belarus into Poland since the start of the summer. The flow of migrants, mainly from the Middle East is an attempt by the Lukashenko regime to put pressure on the EU to reduce sanctions imposed after a sham presidential election in November of 2020. Poland has put in place an exclusion zone, a several kilometre wide region along its border with Belarus which has been heavily militarised and where according to multiple accounts illegal push-backs have been taking place at the hands of Polish authorities.