“They Had the Exact Coordinates of Where to Disembark”

• 4.10.2021, 17:08

Belarusians told about encounters with illegals who break through to Poland.

The migration crisis on the border between Belarus and the EU continues. The exact number of foreign citizens who arrived in the country to then get to the West is unknown, but we are definitely talking about thousands of people: this was discussed by both representatives of the EU countries and the State Border Committee. Naturally, such an influx of foreigners could not go unnoticed by ordinary Belarusians. The site zerkalo.io asked those who began to constantly encounter migrants at work to share their stories.

"They are asking for an "international Internet for Poland"

- Approximately two and a half months ago, people from the East and Africa began to contact us, - said an employee of one of the mobile phone shops. - They always come in groups. Judging by the passports, Yemenis, Iranians, Iraqis, there were even Congolese citizens. Everyone has one request - they want to connect sim cards with "international internet" - this is, in fact, the Internet in roaming. Some blurt out and say directly: "International internet for Poland." Often there are "guides" with such citizens: men or women who help explain the essence of the request.

According to the interlocutor, such groups come to the salon once every 2-3 days: “There is a stable minimum of 10 people, the ceiling is 20.” He assesses the age of people as "average" - not older than 35 years.

- I can not say that they are poor: they look moderately well-off judging by look, but they sometimes seem not very educated in communication. Some do not know how to write, do not know what a signature is in documents. The guides are civilians, ordinary people of Slavic appearance. One of them said to me the other day: "Good afternoon! Well, you probably already know what these people need." Clients pay for themselves: more often in cash, sometimes by cards, - says the man.

"They had the exact coordinates of where to disembark"

Another interlocutor - the taxi driver Ilya (hereinafter, the names of the interlocutors have been changed) - a few days ago drove three people with a "southern" appearance from Minsk to one of the villages on the border with Poland in the Hrodna region.

- The order came at the railway station, a solid-looking man sat in the car: in a white shirt, glasses, with a leather folder in his hands, - the guy recalls. - In English, he told me something like: "Now we will go after my friends, and you will pick them up." We went to the Upper Town, where he got out of the car, and three men got in his place. They all wore nice warm jackets and the same Cat backpacks. One then forgot his hat and scarf in the car - they look new. The first passenger paid me 220 rubles. And the three at the same time gave him money - an even larger amount in cash, 600 rubles. As I understand it, for the services of the guide.

On the way, the taxi driver says, the men practically did not speak and in general looked tense. Only one of the passengers knew a little English.

- On the Hrodna highway, we stopped to refuel, and a gas station attendant said he often sees migrants there, - the interlocutor adds. - By the way, one of my passengers was very similar to the guy whose photo you published, just one-to-one.

According to Ilya's story, the navigator immediately led them not exactly to the place where the passengers wanted to get, but they had the exact coordinates where they had to disembark.

- This is a country road, there are a lot of ditches, - says the guy. - At first, there is a small field, then the forest starts. At the entrance, it still seemed to me that someone was standing in the field, but when I approached closer, I could no longer see it because of the trees on the side of the road. The passengers got out, said "thank you" in English, took their backpacks, went down to the side of the field, and disappeared into the woods.

"Apparently, they started to demand migrants to learn Russian"

- I work in a private educational institution, one of the services of which is teaching Russian as a foreign language, - said Irina from Minsk. - Around the beginning of September, migrants began to regularly come to us: apparently, the departments for citizenship and migration began to demand from them to learn Russian in order to live in Belarus. However, they do not need a full-fledged course of study: they ask to pay for one lesson so that we will issue them a certificate of attendance. We do not provide such services and turn everyone away, but they do not want to leave, they continue to persistently walk around the office with their request. The day before yesterday, there was one such person: he refused to leave until we gave him a document.

According to the interlocutor, it is usually very difficult to maintain a conversation with foreigners - they do not know the language, but they are extremely persistent. The woman unambiguously defines the region of their origin as Arab countries, but she cannot say more precisely.

- Now they regularly visit our offices, there have already been about five such cases. From time to time, people from abroad come to our courses, this is not surprising, - says Irina. - But people usually make an appointment in advance, coordinate the schedule, and so on. But here, they come without prior notice or any kind of appointment for courses.

"Iraqis bought all their raincoats"

The guests of the capital are also noticed by employees of hypermarkets. Here is one such story:

- I work in one of the large hypermarkets in the capital, - says another interlocutor. - The Iraqis have bought all the raincoats from us. Yesterday I approached another group of young guys, almost teenagers. I asked where they came from: Iraq, Afghanistan? A lively boy of about 12, in fluent English, said that he was from Iraq, that they knew about the wire at the border, they had SIM cards, the Internet. He said that they were not going to Poland and Latvia but might try to get [to the EU] through Lithuania.

"Up to a hundred people may not come on the return flight"

Another reader, who, according to him, works for the Belavia airline, told us about the growth in the number of people arriving in Belarus, who then do not use return tickets. According to him, the company has long been engaged in analytics of passenger traffic, paying particular attention to this particular area. And, in the last few months, there have been serious problems with this: for flights to Istanbul, Beirut, and Dubai, people en masse do not show up for check-in. On average, forty people are missing on the sides of such aircraft, and, in some cases, this number reaches a hundred.

- When a certain number of tickets are bought for a flight, the company's services calculate how much fuel needs to be loaded onto the plane in order to transport such a number of passengers with luggage over a certain distance, how much food to take on board, - the interlocutor says. - Also, the seating of people needs to be centered so that none of the sides of the vessel outweighs. Accordingly, if, say, 40 people suddenly do not come to our flight, this greatly affects the mentioned indicators. 40 people with luggage are minus four tons of weight. Many departments have to re-carry out calculations, perform many operations in order to ensure the safety of the flight. Because of this, Belavia incurs losses.

According to an employee of the airline, a massive absence of passengers on return flights has been observed over the past one and a half to two months. The overwhelming majority have citizenship of Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and other states of Asia and North Africa.

- Formally, these people have every right to fly to Belarus, we cannot refuse them, - says the source. - They have a visa, there is an invitation from a travel agency that promises to ensure their stay in Belarus (usually such "tourists" arrive for 7-10 days). However, this does not change the situation - people do not come on return flights. This carries risks for the company: as the party that brought them to Belarus, we will also deal with the deportation. That is, we will have to take them home free of charge.

The interlocutor emphasizes that Belavia is trying to refuse service to visitors if there is reason to believe that their real purpose of the trip to Belarus differs from the stated one. For example, an airline monitors travel agencies whose passengers do not appear on flights en masse, filtering out their new customers. However, according to the employee, they quickly change legal entities and continue to transport migrants to Belarus.