INTO THE WOODS

A dangerous migration route into Europe traverses an ancient forest.

- ELIZABETH FLOCK

Last August, Ahmed found himself in Belarus, at the Polish border, watching a smuggler lean a ladder against a very high wall as members of the Belarusian border guard looked on. Ahmed, a nineteen-year-old Somali, is tall and lanky, with close-cropped curly dark hair. At home, in Mogadishu, he liked to watch Manchester City football and TikTok videos. One day, members of the terror group Al Shabab came to his house to recruit his father in their fight to overthrow the government. When his father refused, they killed him. Soon, they came for Ahmed, too. His uncle had heard about a new route to immigrate to Europe; a travel agency in Mogadishu was advertising tickets. Ahmed’s family bought him a three-thousand-dollar package that included flights to Russia on a tourist visa and a taxi to neighboring Belarus, where a smuggler would help him cross to Poland. Now the smuggler, an Afghan man, urged Ahmed to climb the wall and jump.

The wall was eighteen feet tall, made of steel, topped with concertina wire, and equipped with cameras and sensors. Built by Poland in 2022, it cuts through the heart of the Białowieża Forest, a UNESCO World Heritage site that is Europe’s last great lowland primeval forest, largely untouched by humans. The forest, which straddles Poland and Belarus, is famed for its old-growth trees and its rich biodiversity: it is home to thousands of plant and animal species, from endangered fungi and lichen to lynx, wolves, and the largest free-roaming herd of European bison. In the past four and a half years, Białowieża and neighboring forests have also become a route for thousands of migrants, primarily from the Middle East and Africa, seeking to enter Europe. Ahmed (his name, like those of the other migrants in this story, has been changed for his safety) climbed the ladder and jumped into Poland. He fell on his arm and his shoulder, fracturing bones. Then it was time to run.