Since the Summer of 2021 thousands of people from the Middle East, Africa, and Asia were brutally drawn to the Polish-Belarusian border by the Belarusian regime, only to find themselves trapped between two states unwilling to let them pass. As an outcome of that, the Polish government suspended the right to asylum at the border. In this episode we discussed what has changed at the border over the years and what humanitarian aid looks like there. We focus on the procedures of age determination of asylum seekers. Judyta Kuc leads us through the process introduced by Polish border guards and explains the impact of false age assessment for a minor.
SPECIAL GUEST:
Judyta Kuc
Humanitarian, Activist, Researcher working with Doctors Without Borders
LEARN MORE:
MSF: Trapped between border: https://www.msf.org/trapped-between-borders-life-threatening-consequences-increased-militarisation-poland-belarus
MSF/We Are Monitoring/Save The Children: Age as a Verdict: https://www.msf.org/polish-legislators-must-drop-harmful-age-assessment-children
We Are Monitoring: They did not let us speak. The “temporary” suspension of human rights at the Poland–Belarus border: https://wearemonitoring.org.pl/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/They-did-not-let-us-speak-WAM.pdf
Human Constanta: https://humanconstanta.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/humanitarian-crisis-in-belarus-.pdf
We Are Monitoring: https://wearemonitoring.org.pl/en/report/
Save the Children: https://resourcecentre.savethechildren.net/pdf/Children-at-the-border-I_IX_21112025.pdf
SUPPORT FRACTURED:
"Fractured", "Humanitarian Watch” and "DisInfo Watch” are original podcast productions of ReFOCUS Media Labs citizen journalists. To support this program donate on https://refocusmedialabs.org/donate
or join us on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/c/refocusmedialabs
PRODUCTION FAMILY:
Host: Sonia Nandzik-Herman
Production Family:
Dawoud Nouri, Yaser Akbari,Ziad Ibrahim, Sonia Nandzik-HermanWassim Ahmed, Melek Moussa, ANgel Sifontes
Citizen Journalists:
Yaser Taheri, Milad Ebrahimi, Yaser Akbari, Naqib Rasuli, Mohammad Ali Alami
Mentorship: Douglas Herman
Producers: Sonia Nandzik-Herman, Douglas Herman
Graphic Design: Eli Fazlollah
MUSIC:
Theme- "Intro for Legends" by Bonkers Beat Club (Epidemic Sound)
Additional- "Mogul" by Blue Steel (Epidemic Sound)
SPECIAL THANKS:
To the extended ReFOCUS Family for their dedication, passion and creativity all year long. We’re not where we are today without all the effort from Dominika Pawlik, Weronika Pawlik, Liz Nasyrova, Evi Amersfoort, Alina Mieniailova, Florian Krauer, Louise Holm, Chryssa Kouroukli, Natalia Tsarenko, Fine Bieler, Tommaso Stingo, Nazanin Foroghi, Dariia Stepanova, Rada Valchanova, Walker Watson, Eleonora Giacomelli, Joseph Murray, Omer Butt, Wojtek Paluch, Matthew Goncalves O’Kelly, Jennifer Perez, Jule Pehnt, Majid Bakhshi, Paul “Al” Simon, Jaime Moro Saavedra, Joëlle Hübscher, Beni Rietmann, Jakob Mayr, Jurek Edel, Francisco Ibanez, Bart Van Son, Federico Bustamente, Myriam Rey, Lotta Luley, Federico Rinaldi, Fatima Al Ali, Karina Kozłowska, Grace Neely, Marion Olang, Beryl Waindi.
CONTACT:
Thoughts or questions about this episode? Suggestions for topics we can cover later in the season?
Contact: sonia@refocusmedialabs.org
