BRUZGI BORDER CROSSING (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th November, 2021) Migrants from the middle East would rather die stranded at the border between Belarus and Poland than go back to their homeland, an Iraqi migrant told Sputnik on Wednesday.
Some 2,000 migrants have been stranded at the Belarusian border with Poland since Monday. As part of measures to prevent them from crossing over, the Polish authorities have deployed security forces to the border, adding to tensions.
"We just wait, keep waiting. We are not going back to Iraq, that is 100-200% ... We stay here. Or we die, or they open the border. One of these two. They got two choices � option A (is to) open the border, we will go, option B (is) we stay here, (it) does not matter (if we) run out of food, water, cold does not matter. We die, we are not going nowhere else," the migrant said.
The Red Cross brings food and water to the migrants, as they have run out, the man said, noting that none of these migrants wants to stay in Poland.
"Shame to Poland. In 1942, they came to Iraq and we opened the door for them, we welcomed them ... but now, they are putting gas on our face and the kids' face, and they ... close the border on us," he added.
In July 1941, Moscow and Warsaw signed an agreement to restore diplomatic relations between Poland and the Soviet Union. The deal also stipulated that the two would assist each other in fighting Nazi Germany and, in particular, the creation of Polish military units on the territory of the USSR. In the summer of 1942, over 114,000 Polish soldiers left the Soviet Union, with some of them relocating in the Middle East. These soldiers safeguarded the oil fields of Iran and Iraq until 1944.
