WPolityce(.)pl: The Internet user, Jacek, living right next to the Polish-Belarusian border, shared his thoughts on X/Twitter:
“It was August 8 or 9, 2021. I saw border guards having to choose which groups of migrants they kept and which they let go. They didn't have enough people for the job. At that time, there was no fence on the border, not even a temporary barrier. Already then, we saw groups of a dozen or even several dozen migrants crossing the dirt roads.
They broke into empty buildings and farm buildings (including my garage and my grandmother's house several times), and a group of several dozen people walked through the nearby village, pulling the door handles of cars parked in front of the houses. In August, my mother stopped going to the garden after dark. My wife took the children and went to the city of Białystok for some time.
During the storming of the border in Kuźnica, parents took their children from school. The inhabitants of Krynki could observe the entire battle for the border crossing from the windows of their homes.
When the temporary wire fence was built, migrant campfires could be seen at night on the other side. At night, they were able to throw not only stones and shoes at our soldiers but also burning sticks, which ignited the grass and sometimes the crops in the fields. The soldiers extinguished it with shovels and their boots.
I remember a conversation with the driver of a military ambulance, who told me about the broken jaws, noses, collarbones, and cracked skulls of our soldiers whom he drove from the border.”
Jacek (*) also mentions the escalating influence of the media and "activists" on the behavior of illegal migrants.
“These were very specific people who knew what they wanted. Some inspired trust, others did not. However, the first thing they always asked for was a ride to Germany or some larger city. This was followed by the dollar amounts offered. It made sense to me. That's why they were here. They knew from the very beginning what game they were playing. They took water and food, although that was not the kind of help they expected from me. For me, the help was food and water, thermal blankets, etc. For them, a ride to Berlin.”
“I have never met a hungry or sick person (I do not rule out that there aren’t). There were three different attitudes of migrants that changed in relation to who they encountered. They behaved differently towards soldiers and guards and differently towards the media and activists. They were the most honest towards us - the indigenous people.”
Jacek ends his entry with a reflection on how the lives of the inhabitants of Krynki changed after the construction of the wall on the Polish-Belarusian border.
“Today, I no longer report to you the situation from the border as I did a year ago for a simple reason. It's very quiet in my neighborhood. The fence relieved the burden on soldiers and the Border Guard. It gives you the much-needed time to react. Migration has moved to places where this fence does not exist. […]
My children play quietly outside the house while I am working in the field. People are not afraid to go out after dark. We live normally. Thank you to the Border Guard, @12Division, @16Division. We stand like a wall behind the Polish Uniform,” - he finishes.
Based on reporting by portal WPolityce(.)pl.
* The article reports the full name of the user who made the post. We are not that brave. Knowing how far some people could go, I decided to withhold the name.
