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Poland: Germany expels 300 Poles

01 July 1995

On 24 June the German Border Guard (BGS) expelled 300 Polish people from Frankfurt an der Oder on charges of seeking illegal employment. Before being returned over the border they were detained in a factory hall for 12 hours without food and water. The Poles, mostly young residents of the Polish border town of Slubice, were lured into Frankfurt an der Oder by an offer of employment distributing a German promotional paper printed in Poland, "Brandenburger Spitz". The job had been advertised on posters around Slubice offering 100 Deutschemarks per person a day. Job seekers were told to meet in a hall of the now-defunct semiconductor plant at 6 am. When they arrived the Poles were surrounded by BGS officers using sticks and unmuzzled dogs to herd them into the building where they were told to sign a document - which many did not understand - admitting to having distributed the papers. All but 10 of the detainees were transported to Slubice by the German border guards and barred from re-entering Germany for five years. The next day about 100 Poles blocked the Slubice border crossing in protest and the government summoned the German ambassador. On 30 June officials of the Frankfurt an der Order Office for Foreigners opened a special office in Slubice where the Poles would have the "no entry visas" on their passports cancelled. Warsaw Voice, 2 & 9.7.95.