Belarus-Poland Border Crisis (2021- )
Two Refugees, Both on Poland’s Border. But Worlds Apart.
KUZNICA, Poland — On the day war broke out in Ukraine, Albagir, a 22-year-old refugee from Sudan, was lying on the frozen forest floor at the gateway to Poland, trying to stay alive. Drones sent by the Polish border patrol were looking for him. So were helicopters. It was night, with subzero temperatures and snow […]
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At the Polish Border, Tens of Thousands of Ukrainian Refugees
MEDYKA, Poland — Cradling her 3-year-old son, who was gravely ill with cancer, the 25-year-old Ukrainian mother staggered into Poland on Friday. She was now safe from the bombs and rockets unleashed by President Vladimir V. Putin but despondent at being separated from her husband by a Ukrainian order that all able-bodied men stay behind […]
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Iraqis Return From Belarus, but Some Say They Will Try Again to Reach the E.U.
ERBIL, Iraq — Iraq repatriated a second wave of more than 600 migrants from Belarus on Friday after they gave up, at least for now, on a disastrous attempt to try to reach the European Union via its eastern borders. Two Iraqi Airways charter flights landed before dawn in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan […]
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Who Is Olaf Scholz, Germany’s Next Chancellor?
BERLIN — Olaf Scholz succeeded in his campaign to become the next chancellor of Germany primarily by convincing voters that he would be very much like the towering and long-serving figure he will replace: Angela Merkel. Terse, well-briefed and abstaining from any gesture of triumph, Mr. Scholz not only sounded like the outgoing conservative chancellor, […]
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Lithuania Welcomes Belarusians as It Rebuffs Middle Easterners
RUKLA, Lithuania — The emigrants hitchhiked overnight to the Dysna River, the border of their native Belarus. They thought they could wade across the frigid waters, but the spot they chose in haste proved to be so deep they had to swim. On the other side, at dawn two weeks ago, they found a house […]
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How Fake News on Facebook Helped Fuel a Border Crisis in Europe
BRUZGI, Belarus — After more than a week sleeping in a frigid encampment on the border between Belarus and Poland, and an abortive foray across the frontier repelled by pepper spray and police batons, Mohammad Faraj gave up this month and retreated to a warm hotel in Minsk, the capital of Belarus. Soon after, however, […]
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Limping and Penniless, Iraqis Deported From Belarus Face Bleak Futures
ERBIL, Iraq — It was cold in Belarus, bitterly cold, but at least it offered hope, however illusory. Nazar Shamsaldin was one of thousands of Iraqis who made their way to the Eastern European country in recent months, hoping it would prove a jumping-off point to new lives in the West, only to become pawns […]
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Risk for Leader of Belarus: Migrants He Lured May Want to Stay
BRUZGI, Belarus — He has ruled with an iron fist for 27 years, surviving huge street protests, multiple rounds of Western sanctions and even alleged plots by his benefactor, Russia, to remove him. But a threat President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko has never before had to contend with is now taking shape in a squalid migrant […]
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