We received an email from a reader concerning an incident on November 2 that took place after 8:00 a.m. at a gas station in Lipiany. The person who reported it sent us the following account:

[…] driving from Germany on the A18 road, I pulled into a gas station [...] in Lipiany, in your municipality, to have a coffee. When I arrived, I saw a police car parked there. I went inside; behind the counter were two employees, and in front of the counter were two police officers. When I approached the checkout window itself, I noticed two people under the counter, in the area normally accessible to employees—a woman and a man kneeling or sitting on the cold floor (next to empty chairs on which they could have sat with dignity), with Asian facial features.

She added:

Crying very loudly, they pleaded for help.

We asked the Bolesławiec police about the matter, and they referred us to the Border Guard. Major SG Joanna Konieczniak, press spokeswoman for the Commander of the Nadodrzański Border Guard Unit, explains:

According to information provided by the police, bystanders informed police officers about the presence of the foreigners at the gas station. A police patrol arrived, at which point the foreigners began lamenting terribly in front of the gas station’s customers. They did not respond to words spoken to them in Polish, English or German (as it later turned out, the Vietnamese citizens knew Polish, understood it very well and were also able to communicate in our language, because they had worked in Poland and were seeking to obtain Polish residence cards).

She adds:

As the police told us, the man alternately squatted, stood up and sat on a chair. The woman, lamenting, also frequently changed her position.

What happened to the Asians?

The spokeswoman continues: – The police officers then transported the foreigners to their unit, where they were given a hot meal and drinks. Border Guard officers from the Zgorzelec post arrived at the Police Station in Warta. The foreigners did not have passports with them. With the assistance of a Vietnamese interpreter, their personal details were established. A check of the foreigners’ residence status in our country conducted by Border Guard officers showed that they were staying in Poland illegally and had also crossed the border from Germany into Poland in breach of the regulations.

She further adds:

For this reason, the Commander of the Zgorzelec Border Guard post initiated proceedings to oblige the foreigners to leave Poland. As a result of these proceedings, due to their illegal stay in Poland and unlawful crossing of the border from Germany into Poland, the foreigners were issued return decisions requiring them to leave within the next 30 days. The decision also imposed a ban on entering Poland and other Schengen Area countries for the following six months. After all the procedures had been completed, the foreigners were released.