Few people know that a small Tatar community lives in the village of Krushinyany in the north-east of Poland, not far from the border with Belarus. Making a living mainly from tourism, members of this Muslim community suffer from the state of emergency imposed by Warsaw.
Poland recently extended the 30-day state of emergency, which was introduced in early September in a three-kilometer strip along the border with Belarus, for another 60 days. Until its abolition, this zone is prohibited from visiting people who do not have Polish citizenship or a permanent residence permit. The Polish government said that by extending the state of emergency for another two months, it hopes to reduce the number of “illegal border crossings.” First of all, we are talking about migrants, mainly from the countries of the Middle East, who are illegally transported by Belarusian border guards to the territory of Poland.
Migrants from Afghanistan surrounded by Polish border guards
The mosque in Krushinyany is also in the restricted area, and the village itself – traditional wooden houses set against the backdrop of idyllic landscapes – is now practically cut off from the rest of the country.
“Tourists are no longer coming to Krushinyany, which means that the income of the villagers has dropped dramatically,” says Artem Graban, a migration expert at the University of Warsaw.
Border villages empty without tourists
The village of Bohoniki, neighboring with the Krushinyans, where members of the Tatar community also live, is open to tourists – but their number has noticeably decreased. The owner of a restaurant in the village says that after the introduction of the state of emergency in September, his income was stable – but only because no one else could come to neighboring Krushinyany. The man treats the migrants trapped on the Polish-Belarusian border after the introduction of the state of emergency with compassion. “We collect clothes, food, blankets for these poor people,” he tells DW, “but we ourselves have a hard time due to the outflow of tourists.”
Dorota Kowalska runs a small hotel and restaurant in the village of Budy, located five kilometers from the restricted area. She says many Western European tourists have canceled their reservations. “I have another business in Warsaw, so I can cover the losses to some extent, but most of the locals have a hard time,” the woman says.
Now it is quiet in Budy: three restaurants, in which tourists usually dine and dine, are empty, and there are no guests in small family pensions. Locals say that the end of the season has never been so quiet, especially since the weather in the region is unusually warm.
“Agritourism has suffered a lot,” says Yarmila Rybitskaya, an activist working on the border with the closed zone. business “.
“Residents of the border zone have just begun to recover from the damage caused by the covid,” says Artem Graban. “And now this problem has fallen on them. Cross-border trade is suffering, there are no tourists.”
Compensation for Polish entrepreneurs is not enough
On September 17, the Polish parliament passed a law on compensation for businesses in areas of emergency. It applies to companies operating in the tourism and catering sectors, as well as to owners of agritourism farms.
Residents of Polish border regions suffer losses as a result of the introduction of a state of emergency on the border with Belarus
All of them will be able to claim compensation in the amount of 65% of the average monthly income for the last three months before the introduction of the state of emergency: June, July and August. Earlier, the parliamentary committee on economics recommended increasing this support to 80%.
“The authorities did not bother to allocate about three million zlotys (about 700 thousand euros) compensation to people affected by the introduction of the state of emergency. But thanks to our pressure, the adopted law is better than what the government proposed,” says Robert Tyszkiewicz, MP from the opposition Civic Coalition (KO).
The government also did not support proposals to compensate tourist transport companies, grocery and gift shops. Support was also denied to companies from the field of culture, entertainment and recreation, while the annual festival of three cultures in Wlodava and the Pop-Up City festival in Terespol had to be canceled.
“It will be difficult for entrepreneurs working in a state of emergency to receive compensation from the state for the losses incurred as a result of this regime,” says Graban.
Closed borders harm business
A study by Arkadiusz Malkowski of the West Pomeranian University of Technology in Szczecin shows that 83.6% of Belarusians crossing the Polish border indicate shopping as the purpose of their visit.
Warsaw builds a 2.5-meter high fence along the border with Belarus
Representatives of 30% of enterprises from Polish border cities, interviewed by Malkowski in the course of the study, said that foreigners make up up to 40% of their clients, and 89% of local authorities in border regions named cross-border trade and cross-border tourism as the most important sectors of the regional economy.
The owners of enterprises and firms in the border zone receive the lion’s share of income thanks to the inhabitants of Belarus. According to Malkowski’s research, in the 50-kilometer border zone, trade with Belarus annually brings Polish enterprises more than 2.3 billion zlotys a year.
The mayor of Terespol, Jacek Danilyuk, tells DW that the income of local businesses has significantly decreased due to the lack of visitors from Belarus. “We believe that the situation on the border will quickly return to normal, and Belarusian tourists will be able to visit our city again. But the introduction of a state of emergency was the right decision,” he adds.
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