News coverage of the manufactured migrant crisis on the Poland / Belarus border

In November 2021, Belarusian dictator Alexandr Lukashenko sought to destabilise the EU by what was described as a ‘gangster style’ approach towards people who had been encouraged to travel to Belarus with the aim of then crossing the Polish border. Thousands of people camped out along the frontier in freezing temperatures and migrants reported being beaten by armed Belarusian men trying to force them to breach border fences, and then subjected to violent pushbacks by Polish border guards.

The Polish government established an ‘exclusion zone’ near the border, preventing the entry of journalists and aid workers, and criminalising assisting people on the move.

With Paraic O’Brien and cameraman Ray Queally we breached the exclusion zone and produced a series of reports on the death of one young man who drowned crossing the river and the midnight rescue of two others, the Polish households sheltering families on the move, and the geopolitical context including Lukashenko’s threats to cut gas supplies to Europe during the crisis.