BOHONIKI, Poland: The 27-week-old fetus of an Iraqi migrant who lost her baby after crossing the European Union border into Poland was laid to rest on Tuesday in a Muslim cemetery.
At least 11 people have died on both sides of the Polish-Belarusian border since thousands of migrants began trying to cross over during the summer.
The crisis escalated earlier this month when larger groups of migrants began arriving at the border, camping out in dire conditions along a razor wire fence.
Tuesday’s ceremony took place at the Bohoniki cemetery for Poland’s ethnic Tatar minority, where three other migrants are buried.
The tiny white coffin was carried by two members of the local Muslim community and the imam, as the first snow of the season blanketed the surrounding fields.
A simple plaque on the grave carried the name: “Halikari Dhaker.”
“These people did not leave their homes, their countries for a tourist trip, but to find a better life,” the imam, Ali Aleksander Bazarewicz, told mourners.
“When we dug the first grave, we were hoping it would be the last. Unfortunately, that was not the case,” he said.
The baby’s parents did not attend the funeral.
The mother is in serious condition in hospital and the father along with their five children are in a migrant center in the nearby city of Bialystok.
Polish volunteers came to the rescue of the family in a forest on the border near the village of Narewka on November 12.
“The children were sitting calmly and quietly next to their mother, who could not stop screaming. Their father was wringing his hands and asking for help,” Piotr Matecki, one of the volunteers, told the Gazeta Wyborcza daily.
“She had been suffering like this for two days, lying down, vomiting water, not eating anything,” he said.
An ambulance took the woman to hospital where doctors confirmed that the fetus had died.
The new grave lies alongside those of a 37-year-old Yemeni, Mustafa Mohammed Murshid Al-Raymi, a 19-year-old Syrian, Ahmad Al Hasan, and an unidentified migrant.
Iraqi migrant’s stillborn baby buried near Polish border
https://arab.news/5u39f
Iraqi migrant’s stillborn baby buried near Polish border
- At least 11 people have died on both sides of the Polish-Belarusian border since thousands of migrants began trying to cross over during the summer
- Tuesday's ceremony took place at the Bohoniki cemetery for Poland's ethnic Tatar minority
Hungary sends Druzhba fact-finding mission to Ukraine, deputy minister says
- “The government has set up the delegation that is expected to do a fact-finding mission on the Druzhba pipeline,” Czepek said
- “Our job is to assess the status of the pipeline and create conditions for its restart“
BUDAPEST: Hungary has sent a fact-finding mission to Ukraine to investigate the suspension of oil transit through the Druzhba pipeline, a deputy minister said on Wednesday, as Budapest pushes for a resumption of flows amid rising global prices due to the war in the Middle East.
Russian oil flows through the Druzhba pipeline to Hungary and Slovakia have been suspended since late January after damage that Kyiv says takes time to fix.
The issue has become the focus of a diplomatic clash between Budapest and Kyiv, with hostile rhetoric toward Ukraine taking center stage in veteran nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s campaign ahead of an election on April 12.
Last month, Hungary vetoed new European Union sanctions on Russia and also a huge loan for Ukraine over the dispute.
“The government has set up the delegation that is expected to do a fact-finding mission on the Druzhba pipeline,” Hungarian Deputy Energy Minister Gabor Czepek said in a video posted on his official Facebook page which showed him standing at the border with Ukraine.
“Our job is to assess the status of the pipeline and create conditions for its restart.”
UKRAINE SAYS MISSION HAS NO OFFICIAL STATUS
Ukraine’s foreign ministry said the Hungarian fact-finding mission had no official status and its members entered as tourists.
“This group of people does not have an official status or scheduled official meetings on the territory of Ukraine, so it is definitely incorrect to call them a ‘delegation’,” spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said.
Hungary and Slovakia, the only EU countries still importing Russian oil, have accused Ukraine of deliberately delaying the resumption of oil flows for political reasons.
Czepek said that Slovakia would also take part in the fact-finding mission, which has four members.
“The Middle Eastern crisis has raised the stakes, leading the Hungarian government to draw on strategic reserves and introduce protected prices,” he said.
Orban announced a cap on fuel prices after an emergency government meeting on Monday and urged the EU to suspend sanctions on Russian energy.
Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Tuesday after meeting EU chief Ursula von der Leyen that they agreed oil transit through the Druzhba pipeline via Ukraine should be resumed.
