Queues And Interrogations: What Is Happening On Belarus-Poland Border?

The situation there became especially tense.

The DW report is telling what drivers and passengers have to face during the summer holidays, passing through the only operating checkpoint on the Belarusian-Polish border.

The road checkpoint “Brest” (“Terespol” on the Polish side) has been the only option for crossing the border between the two countries for those who travel by cars and buses for almost half a year. Prior to this, in November 2021, the Polish authorities closed the border crossing “Kuznica Białostocka” (“Bruzgi” from the Belarusian side) after the appearance of a spontaneous migrant camp on the Belarusian side of the border.

Then, in February 2023, the Polish checkpoint “Bobrowniki” (‘Berastavitsa” from the Belarusian side) suspended its work for an indefinite period. Later, Warsaw explained these actions as “national security concerns”. This was done after a court in Hrodna sentenced journalist Andrzej Poczobut, who was found guilty of “calling for actions aimed at causing harm to national security” and “inciting hatred”. Poczobut was sentenced to 8 years in prison.

Two more border crossings between Poland and Belarus (“Piashchatka” — “Połowcy” and “Damachava” — “Sławatycze”) were closed during the coronavirus pandemic and have not been working since then. The railway communication for passenger trains across the Belarusian-Polish border was also interrupted.

Buses stand in queues at the border

With the onset of the summer holidays, the situation on the Belarusian-Polish border in Brest became especially tense. This is also noted by those who decide to travel to the EU on their own vehicles, and those who use scheduled buses. A driver from Brest, Aliaksandr (name changed at the request of the interlocutor), now regularly drives a passenger bus to the Polish cities of Biała Podlaska and Warsaw.

“Since February, when the Poles closed their Bobrowniki and it became possible to leave for Poland only through Brest, the situation has changed very much,” Aliaksandr states. “There were many more cars, but also many more buses. The fact that there is a separate channel for them at the border does not particularly affect the situation: after all, there is only one checkpoint. If on a passenger car, because of the queues, one can go to Lithuania, cross the border there and get into the EU, then this is not an option for a regular bus: we must move strictly along the route.”

The driver also notes that it used to be considered normal for a bus to pass both borders in four hours. Now it is impossible to calculate travel time. “Sometimes you stand in line for 12 hours if there are a lot of buses. Colleagues complained that there was no coordination with travel agencies: they send their vehicles on shopping tours or travel, but these buses are subjected to a thorough inspection, and everyone else is waiting,” Aliaksandr shares.

Now, by his own admission, in order to plan household chores, he even has to always warn his family about how much he got behind schedule during another trip.

“Brutal questioning” by people in civilian clothes

However, not only the influx of transport now affects the time it takes to cross the border at checkpoints. Much more time is lost due to calling passengers for conversations and checking phones after passing through passport control. Aliaksandr admits that a rare trip in recent weeks has gone without this procedure.

“Passengers were periodically summoned for such interrogations before, right after the presidential elections in 2020,” recalls a driver from Brest. “But then, for many, the borders were closed due to the pandemic and traffic was not so active. Gradually, it began to be evident that strange people appeared at the checkpoints — neither border guards nor customs officers. It was then that some passengers began to be taken away for interrogations, their luggage was carefully checked, and then it came to examining phones.”

According to Aliaksandr, there were many more people in civilian clothes at the border this spring, when information appeared about an attack on a Russian military aircraft at the Machulishchy airfield near Minsk. Since then, lengthy interrogations of some passengers have become the norm, and not all of them return to the bus.

“I can say that this summer I had a period when every trip was marked by calling people to such conversations,” the source told DW. “You don’t know about it in advance: usually the decision is made at the moment when the border guard checks the passports. Something flashes on his computer and a man in civilian clothes appears.” Such communication itself, according to the driver, can go in different ways — sometimes it took up to two hours. All this time, the bus must wait for the passenger who was called for a conversation, if the border guard does not give a signal that this person will not be released.

Citizens of Ukraine undergo special control at the border

Aliaksandr also draws attention to the fact that recently, when leaving the Republic of Belarus for Poland, this kind of control has weakened a little, but at the entrance to Belarus, on the contrary, it got stricter. Citizens of Ukraine are of particular interest to the inspectors: in most cases, they go through a conversation and phone checking.

“As Ukrainians themselves say, the inspectors are interested in the purpose of their visit to Belarus and the further route,” Aliaksandr continues. “It is clear that now you will not get directly from Ukraine either to Belarus or Russia. So they are talking, trying to figure out if there are “saboteurs” among them.”

Maryja (not her real name) told DW about how she tried to get to her relatives in Brest. According to the young woman, she herself is from the Kherson region, and now lives and works in Warsaw: “I have relatives in the Brest region, I try to visit them regularly. Previously, there were no problems with crossing the Belarusian border, the border guards could only ask where I was going and how many days I planned to be there.”

You can get a ban on entry to Belarus

However, during another border crossing in June, the woman was sent for an “additional questioning” after passport control. Maryja does not know what power structure the people who conducted the questioning actually represented. They immediately took away her mobile phone, began to study the list of contacts, activity on social media and instant messengers.

“I am aware that such checks take place and people are advised to clean their phones before traveling to Belarus,” notes Maryja. “But I don’t have much to clean there: I didn’t participate in protests in Belarus and I’m not subscribed to Telegram channels recognized as “extremist” in this country”.

Nevertheless, the conversation lasted almost an hour and a half. According to Maryja, they asked about her hobbies, but most of all they were interested in her attitude towards the Ukrainian army. “Then the conversation abruptly turned to some explosions in Belarus, and that the Ukrainians are to blame for this. I tried to answer that I had no idea what it was about, but this only caused aggression among the people who conducted the interrogation,” recalls Maryja.

As a result, a stamp appeared in her passport prohibiting entry into Belarus. The regular bus to Brest left without the Ukrainian: the woman was taken to another bus, which drove her back to Warsaw. Maryja says that after her experience at the border, she no longer wants to try to get to Belarus ever again.