Surrounded by dense forest, about ten people have gathered near the barbed-wire fence that runs along the border with Belarus, waiting for the right opportunity to climb or find an opening and move west toward Poland.

On the other side, armed Polish border guards and soldiers walk and drive vehicles up and down, keeping an eye on the group, which is made up mostly of young Middle Eastern men, some bearing scars from the barbed wire.

In Europe, there is a tense climate over immigration as far-right parties calling for tighter controls face off against centrist factions in Poland’s European elections tomorrow, Sunday.

In this country, the confrontation has a particular geopolitical character. Poland and the European Union have accused Belarus and Russia of trying to foment chaos in 2021 by pushing migrants across the border, with Warsaw calling it “hybrid warfare”. Minsk and Moscow have rejected these accusations.

The number of arrivals has increased recently, according to Polish government figures. And this week, what Poland considers a war had a casualty when a soldier patrolling the border succumbed to his injuries when confronted by migrants on May 28.

In response, the centrist, pro-EU government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced plans to reimpose a no-go zone along the border.

“This border is not secure, unfortunately. The purpose of this zone is to ensure that no one is exposed to the kind of attack that Polish soldiers are exposed to,” Deputy Defense Minister Pawel Zalewski told Reuters.

On the other side of the fence

By the fence, the group continues to wait. Ahmed Lebek, 24, from Aleppo, Syria, said he has been there for over a month. His brother abandoned the effort and returned to Belarus, although he has not been heard from since.

“I came from the war to find a good life. But it is very difficult to cross the border,” said Ahmed, 35, an English teacher from Syria. He himself has tried four times to climb the fence.

Based on the current arrangements, migrants can apply for asylum in Poland, an EU member state, once they are on Polish soil.

One of those who managed to get over the fence a day earlier was Noaman Al-Hemiari, a 24-year-old graphic designer from Yemen. In the forest on the Polish side of the border, he told Reuters he and his companions built a ladder from wood, scraps of cloth and plastic bags and climbed the fence after dark.

He had initially applied for a Polish student visa from Yemen, which was rejected, before traveling to Moscow, then Belarus and then to the border where he stayed for 22 days.

“We were caught by the Belarusians. They beat us…Then they said ‘go away’,” said Noaman, visibly relieved. “(Traffickers) said it’s so easy….They lied to us. If I had known it would be like this, I wouldn’t have come.”

The no-go zone, when implemented, will make things even more difficult for migrants, said Agata Klujewska, who runs a local migrant support organization offering food, medicine and transport. He had gone to the forest to help Noaman and his five companions start the asylum application process and to inform the border guards, who will take them to a special centre.

Any return to more restrictive measures, she said, could result in more people being stranded on the Belarusian side and force volunteers like her to return to the days when they went undercover to help migrants.

“The rules of this zone will affect us a lot,” Klujewska said. “We’ll be forced to start hiding again.”