The flights to Minsk from Beirut or Damascus, orchestrated by Belarus, intensify, with on board the exiles who will try to cross the border with Poland.
They are spotted quickly, in the small departure hall from Beirut airport. Young men without suitcase, with only a small backpack at their feet. They do not have the hurried look of the traveler who files to the security checks. They came from hours in advance. On Tuesday, November 9, they are preparing to embark on Minsk. By a direct flight with the company Belarusse Belavia.
Ammar (the first name has been changed), a Syrian about twenty years, he hastens to say that he goes to the Belarusian capital “in tourist”. “Look, I have my return ticket,” he adds, flying a printed sheet. “Those who leave will not speak,” had warned a tour operator – a pistol on his desk and a bundle of dollars in hand – for whom this new destination became a manna.
Ammar speaks, a little. It is not the only one to claim to have tourism cravings in Belarus, as little credible for a young Syrian refugee who lives in Lebanon – in other words, with very few resources. Then he ends up admitting it. Yes, he will try his luck and approach the Fortress Europe. The ticket, the hotel that awaits it in Belarus, have been reserved with a tour operator, near Beirut. For the visa, it went through the Honorary Consul of Belarus in Lebanon, which has its own travel agency. Everything is in good standing, he insists. It is the subtlety of sordid game of the Middle East departures to Belarus: to have the leisure of legality. Ammar does not hide it: these are “networks” who wait for him once there. This is part of the panoplie.
Already a jacket
We evoke the dead on the border between Belarus and Poland. “But what should I do? Stay here? What is my future here?” – Lebanon being plunged into an economic and financial cataclysm. Ammar trip with other compatriots. Laughter, between excitation and nervousness. We take pictures. Then comes the moment goodbye. Long braces with relative loved ones in Lebanon. Tears flow. At the end of the road, who knows what he will find?
There will be Germany, wants to believe Hassan, who hopes to reach nearby, Syrians like him. This quadmenlay leaves woman and children in Lebanon, where he has long worked as a worker – “We went out well before the crisis.” He leaves for them for him. He measures the danger. It is not fooled: Belarus does not open its doors by benevolence. What does it matter: a road opened towards, perhaps, a little stability.
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