The situation at the Polish-Belarusian border is increasingly tense. For over 3 months, along the whole border, a state of emergency has been declared in an area several kilometres wide. This means that activists, medics, journalists, human rights organizations and no one else except the uniformed services and local residents is allowed to enter this area. This blocks the flow of information, as well as the ability to provide medical and humanitarian aid. The state of emergency was declared for a month at the beginning of September. After this time it was extended for two more months and it will end at the beginning of December. The Polish law does not allow a further extension, but the Polish government is already saying that while there will be no official extension, the restrictions will stay in place, and possibly even increased. The zone might even become 15 kilometers wide. The government, under the pressure of public opinion and organizations dedicated to human rights and freedom of press, intends to allow journalists entry into the zone, but only those it authorizes to do so.

The situation of people trapped between the two borders has also changed. Before, the Belarusian soldiers pushed small groups of people towards Poland. Currently the Belarusian authorities have changed their tactics and have gathered huge groups of migrants at the border. In order to force these people to storm the barbed wire, the soldiers are using torture, violence, rapes, intimidation, blackmail and provocation The people they are attempting to intimidate are so far resisting this pressure, knowing that this is a trap. However, with the current scale of the pressure, it is hard to say how long they will be able to resist.

Poland reacted to this with an enormous mobilization of its armed forces. Border towns are now full of army combat vehicles and soldiers. People who do managed to cross the border are being hunted, when captured they are often beaten and usually thrown back at the border. The areas near the border are being patrolled by drones and helicopters, and in the nearby towns and forests police and military vehicles play dog barking from their loudspeakers in order to frighten and dispirit the people freezing in the forest even more.

Violence is also used towards the people trying to aid those who need help. The medics trying to save human lives first found the tires of their ambulance punctured (a known method of the police and the military), and several days later five private cars were destroyed with axes. Additionally, the racist and xenophobic government propaganda mobilized to action Polish fascists whose groups are trying to locate people aiding the migrants in order to intimidate them or turn them over to the police.

How the situation at the border develops relies on many factors. We are impressed by the people who, under extreme pressure, still manage to resist provocation by the Belarusian troops. People who, beaten and hunted down by the Polish army, still have strength to fight for their dignity. Despite the fact that many of them lost their loved ones, experienced torture and rape, were forced to sell their internal organs that are being followed in the forest by the sound of barking from a police loudspeaker. These people are more important to us than all the armies in the world and together with them we will resist this system and the political games of the authorities.