Residents signal green lights to help stranded migrants in Poland

Polish residents near the Belarus border have switched on green lights in their homes and porches to guide migrants out of the Bialowieza forest and to safety.

The green light campaign is part of a wider local movement lending a helping hand to asylum seekers who are hiding from hostile Polish authorities. In recent weeks, many migrants have crossed into Poland through the Bialowieza forest in dark, swampy, and sub-zero temperatures, and have remained stranded there for weeks.

Now residents hope that switching the green lights will help migrants find safety, and more generally raise awareness of the current refugee crisis.

Monika, resident of the Polish village Pogorzelce, told Sky News: “We put on the green light on our house because it is a sign that it is a home kind to people in need. Everyone who knocks on the door will get hot tea, a warm meal, change of clothes and we will call medical help”.

For others, switching on a green light is more of a symbolic expression of solidarity with refugees in Polish communities that have become bitterly divided over the handling of the border crisis.

"We must remain human" said Polish lawyer Kamil Syller.

Let's support a green light to humanity.
"We must remain human."
Polish lawyer Kamil Syller is appealing to locals living near the Poland/Belarus border to switch on a green light to signal that they can provide migrants with food and shelterhttps://t.co/nCC9jCherw#greenlight pic.twitter.com/pj4RmsflC9

— Migrant Voice 🧡 (@MigrantVoiceUK) November 15, 2021

Volunteers have also patrolled the Bialowieza forest to find stranded migrants and provide them with sleeping bags, nappies, food, and medicine, however they have played a ‘cat-and-mouse’ game with the government which has taken a hard-line approach to the migrant crisis.

In October, Poland's parliament approved a bill allowing border guards to refuse applications for international asylum without examination, in contravention of international law which guarantees asylum even for those who have entered a territory illegally. Polish border guards have also deported migrants back into Belarus and set up an exclusion zone near the border banning aid agencies and journalists.

While the Green Light movement has raised awareness across Poland of the refugee crisis, there are now concerns that hostile actors may also use the green light signal to entrap refugees and hand them back to the authorities.

At least 13 people have died in recent weeks as thousands of migrants have camped on the Eastern edge of the EU. In the early hours of Thursday, the Polish Emergency Medical Team PCPM, an NGO, confirmed the death of a one-year-old Syrian child who had been stranded with his parents for more than a month.