On Wednesday, 11 January, at 3:00 p.m., Border Guard officers from Zgorzelec, while carrying out activities aimed at preventing illegal migration on the A4 motorway (200 metres from the border with Germany), selected for inspection a Renault Scenic passenger car travelling to Germany on German registration plates. After the vehicle was stopped, its driver fled into nearby bushes. The reason for his escape was the 14 passengers he was carrying to Germany (several of them were travelling in the boot, while the others were also not travelling safely).
It turned out that they were foreigners who initially claimed to be Syrian citizens. However, they changed their story, and six of them showed the officers Turkish identity cards and four Turkish passports (several of them did not have passports with them). The foreigners stated that they had attempted to reach Germany from Hungary via Slovakia and Poland. They claimed that they did not intend to stay in Poland. When asked, with the assistance of an interpreter, whether they wanted to apply for international protection in Poland, they persistently insisted that they wanted to settle in Germany.
As a result, proceedings were initiated to oblige the foreigners to leave Poland. During the proceedings, conducted with the assistance of an interpreter, the foreigners eventually decided that they would nevertheless submit applications for protection in Poland. After submitting their applications and being issued Temporary Certificates of Foreigner Identity, they were referred to an open centre run by the Head of the Office for Foreigners. In addition, the foreigners were informed that they could not travel freely to other EU countries.