“I would like to tell you a story.
One time in Somalia, there was a small girl who liked to go to school and truly liked studying. She wanted to be a doctor 1 day. That he'd do something. But in her way were bad people – terrorists from Al-Shabab. Terrorists didn't want girls to learn. They thought the woman's place was in the kitchen. But that small girl refused to comply. Her opposition brought many dangers to her, specified as coercion or genital mutilation. So she had to run.
That girl, it's me. My name is Sainab, I am 17 years old and I want to tell you about what happened to me on the Polish-Belarusian border.”
Sainab said this at a press conference in Warsaw organized in October by the Border Group.
Bartosz Romanian: You were 16 erstwhile you decided to leave Somalia.
Sainab: That's right, but that's actually my father's decision.
Against your will?
No, no. I wanted to leave too. I wanted to save my life, so I didn't protest.
First you flew to Russia. Did you know what was coming for you?
When I left Somalia, I thought I'd get to a place where I would be safe and where I could fulfill my dreams. I didn't know I'd be in the woods, between the borders of 2 countries, where there would be various dangers.
Didn't you check online what's happening on the Polish-Belarusian border?
In Somalia, I studied at boarding school and did not have free access to the Internet, but the fact is that I was never curious in what was happening on migration routes. I was focused on science, and I didn't think 1 day I'd be a exile or a migrant. So I did not know what was happening on the Polish-Belarusian border, just as I did not know what was happening to migrants or refugees in Libya or Turkey.
So you thought you were going to a safe place. Where did you get to?
Moscow. The smuggler took care of everything and I went to Belarus the same day.
Did you feel safe with him?
Oh, no, no. It wasn't a friend or family. I haven't felt safe since I left Somalia. But I told myself that I had to get to where it was safe.
What was the situation on the Polish-Belarusian border?
Scary. The first thing that occurred to me was that something bad was going to happen to me, that I couldn't make it, that I was just gonna die.
I've seen all these people from Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen, Ethiopia, Somalia. Each face was painted with different suffering, each face told a different story, due to the fact that everyone had different reasons to gotta leave their home and scope this terrible place.
Some stayed there for months, without access to fresh water or decent food, many were after pushbackachmany were beaten by soldiers. There were families with children, mothers with babies on their hands. There were besides old, ill, erstwhile men who rolled up with tummy pain, injured and with various another conditions.
How were the Belarusian services?
Fortunately, I haven't met them. The Belarusian side of the border cannot be crossed as Polish, that is to say, crossing the fence, due to the fact that their barrier has sensors and as shortly as it is touched, the alarm calls for the service. To go unnoticed, you gotta dig under.
How much time did you spend in Sistia, which is between borders?
I can't tell you due to the fact that I just don't remember. All I remember is that I left Somalia on March 15 and arrived in Germany on June 11.
What threats lie on women at the border? And how can women defend themselves?
Women are peculiarly difficult. There is simply quite a few force on the border on the Belarusian side, and there may besides be rapes. Fortunately, I have not experienced it myself, nor have I been a witness to specified events.
How do you defend yourself? You can't defend yourself. If the Polish army gets to you, it can do whatever it wants with you. I was fortunate I never fell into their hands. But I saw with my own eyes what soldiers do to people.
Like what?
I've seen them spray pepper spray the faces of people standing at the barrier asking for water, food, or help. I besides saw them pushing people through that small door in the fence, you know, through which?
Yeah, they call them cynically the windows of life.
The choice of this window frequently depends on the border bar number at which the individual was detained. If they keep a individual at a post with a number 350, for example, they will throw him at a post with a number 650 or 950, so that he does not know where he was thrown out, so that he does not find his household or friends.
What do all pushbacks look like?
I saw them throw out 1 of the boys. They beat him in front of the fence, kicked him, put their shoes on the ground. The Polish military uses force all the time, and against everyone. sex does not defend against violence, it may seem that the military only beats young men, but that is not true. They besides beat women and teenage girls. Before pushback they take everything people have – phones, food, warm jackets.
I've heard stories that the military is destroying people's money.
Not so much he destroys as he steals first. They take everything so people don't effort to cross the border again.
Can you turn from the border to Minsk or Moscow?
I don't think that's possible.
So how do we last at the border?
In fact, it's only in the woods that you're aware of the situation, so it's hard to prepare for it. It's besides hard to trust on anyone. You can't anticipate individual to wait for you erstwhile you cross the border. You can number on yourself.
What did crossing the border with Poland look like?
On the barrier from the Belarusian side I climbed the ladder, at the top I cut my hands with a Concertine, and then I slid down 1 of those vertical rungs, 5 meters down, like a fireman going on action. I knew that there were soldiers and border guards in the forest who were just waiting to come after me and throw me back, so as shortly as I set ft on the Polish side, I started rushing ahead. It was very difficult, due to the fact that for days I didn't eat anything decent and drank clean water, and I had to be careful not to fall down and not hurt myself, like turn my ankle. How would I run then?
Were you scared?
Terrible, but you know what? At the border, I discovered that I was a very strong woman. alternatively of breaking down and crying, I started looking for solutions. Okay, I'm alone in the woods, what can I do to survive? present I know I can handle everything on my own. I trust myself and I believe in myself.
And yet at any point you had to ask for aid and support.
I went through this forest alone, repeating to myself – Sainab, you gotta decision on, you gotta manage. I kept looking around to see if individual was following me or not. It was very hard for me, due to the fact that I wasn't going on the consecutive path, but on the cross. The ground was like a wave, I'd stumble over fallen trees, I'd fall into a pit, I'd cram in the mud. Although it was the mediate of the day, the sound of trees and the crack of branches sounded very sinister.
In specified situations the imagination works at full speed. A simple buzzing mosquito can origin panic. I'm yet stuck in the swamp. At first I thought it was only 1 large puddle, but the swamps began to environment me, so I climbed by the tree like on the island and then I said to myself – Sainab, be good to yourself and ask for help.
The humanitarian workers who reached you told me that they had set off in the morning, at sunrise, and were coming to you at least six hours. They besides told me that they were drowning in the swamps and that they had to pull each another out. Girls have been working on the border for years, but they haven't seen specified a swamp.
When they got to me, they promised they wouldn't leave me like this due to the fact that it's besides dangerous.
Sainab. photograph by Wojciech RadwańskiThe girls besides told me they were impressed with your humor. erstwhile you came out of this swamp, you fell for a belt alternatively of Oh my God You smoked Oh, my mud...
They besides liked the way I cheered on the way, saying, "Come on, Sainab, let's decision on, your father would be arrogant of you," or as at tea breaks I sang my favourite song, that is, Perfect Ed Sheeran.
When you left Somalia, you hoped to scope a safe place where you could fulfill your dreams. But in this theoretically safe place, you had to flee the soldiers through the swamp.
And this is the answer to the question of why I did not stay in Poland, but went to Germany. Yes, I was already in the European Union, where I could theoretically apply for asylum and may even stay in Poland, but I did not feel safe in Poland. In practice, asylum cannot be sought at the border. Uniforms track people, stop, beat and throw them to Belarus. Moreover, the military represents the state. So what was I expected to think of the Polish state erstwhile I saw what the Polish military were doing with people?
When you came to Poland again, from Germany, as a refugee, you attended a press conference where you told the communicative of a girl who had to flee her home and who wanted to become a doctor.
I've always been curious in how a human body works, and at school, I did well in English, but besides in biology. I wanted to go to medicine not for money or to fulfill my parents' ambition, but to survey what I'm most curious in.
Many people in Poland and Europe will not believe you. They will say that people like you are coming to us to destabilize Europe and to live on our social, not survey medicine or go to polytech and become an engineer.
I know that opinion, but that's bullshit. I know people are different, but refugees and migrants don't want to live on welfare. See for yourself how many migrants or refugees work in your city, or how many of them employment specified Amazons. I live in Germany, and no 1 here would let me sit at home on welfare unless I had a child. The state requires you to learn or, if you are over 18, learn and work. If individual sits at home and does nothing, they lose the right to any benefits. End of story. On the another hand, many refugees and migrants present are Europeans, working as doctors and engineers. quite a few these people have come up with something, and you can't pretend they're not there.
Did you hear that? "If you want to apply for asylum, stay in the first safe country". It would be Kenya for you, wouldn't it?
Yes, Kenya is safer than Somalia, but I had no influence on where I would go. I was 16 and decided for me. Of course, it would be best to go where you want to go, but I had no choice.
A lot of people don't have that choice. We call them illegal migrants due to the fact that they don't go to the border crossing, they go by boat across the Mediterranean or they cross the alleged green border in Podlasie.
That's a very painful view. erstwhile the war broke out in Ukraine, Poland opened the door and accepted refugees and refugees from Ukraine. Good for you! I'm not saying you shouldn't aid them, but you should treat people at your borders the same way. In the meantime, you divide people into legal and illegal ones; any are thrown through the fence, while others are helped, given apartments and allowed to ride across Europe. I can't accept that.
How can 1 aid and 1 treat others as criminals, “illegal”? Do you really know what these people are moving from through Belarus? Do you know what happens in their countries? Do you know why they were in that forest?
Prime Minister Tusk announced suspension of the right to apply for global protection On Podlasie.
I don't know anything about politics, but it's against global law and simply inhumane.
After a press conference in Warsaw, you went to Podlasie and insisted on going to the border fence.
Crazy idea, right? But I had to do it. I had to see what it was like to be under this fence, being safe, this “legal”. Hundreds of emotions flew through me and I cried.
Was that any kind of therapy for you?
No, I don't think so. I just wanted to remember what was happening on that border. possibly besides to aid individual in the future.
