Poland-Belarus crisis volunteers: ‘Border police can be very aggressive’

Grupa Granica strives to bring supplies to stranded migrants and help them deal with border officers

The call came in at about 1.30pm in the afternoon. A group of 15 people, all Iraqi Kurds, had been found in the woods of Narewka after managing to cross the border from Belarus into Poland. One woman could barely walk. Others had early signs of hypothermia.

The young volunteer who answered the phone - one of about 40 members of Grupa Granica, a Polish network of NGOs monitoring the situation on the border - knew they had to act quickly.