Green Border |
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29 März 2024 - Europe
This week I went to see a Polish film at the cinema for the first time. It was around the ongoing conflict on Poland's border with Belarus made by Agnes Holland entitled Green Border. To destabilize the EU, in late 2021 Belarus started flying in refugees by telling them it was easier to cross into the EU via Poland than across the Mediterranean. Netflix's excellent film The Swimmers chronicled the dangerous water crossing, but was much more upbeat than Green Border. Soldiers from Poland mistreated the refugees coming across their border with Belarus from places like Syria, Afghanistan, and sub-Saharan Africa. Both countries forced these refugees back and forth across the border rather than helping them. Many died. This was in violation of Poland's EU treaty obligations. Nevertheless, brave Poles stepped up at their own peril to thwart their government and sneak the refugees to safety. Shades of Irena Sendler. As in other parts of Europe, those helping refugees are often prosecuted with human trafficking laws. Iwona was quite moved by the film. The film started in October 2021, and we had been in those forests of eastern Poland near the border just two months prior. I sympathized, but perhaps have seen too many films of this genre both crossing the Mexican border into the US and into Europe. I've seen refugee camps in Malta where they were keeping black Africans who made the journey acrost the Mediterranean corralled. I've driven I-10 through the desert and had my kids woken up so the police could search the car. I've navigated two European countries' labyrinthine immigration systems as a non-European citizen. My latest application received a reply requesting 18 additional items of documentation. Crazy. I volunteer (Tennessee spirit!) helping teach refugees here how to code, but I could probably do more. The magnitude of the problem is really overwhelming though, and there are more violent conflicts going on in the world now than at any other point in my lifetime. If we all do a little bit to help it adds up though. The film ends poignantly cutting to Spring 2022 where the Poles and Polish government are helping millions of refugees entering the country from Ukraine.
