A Chechen family has made an attempt to flee the EU on Wednesday, crashing through a border post at the frontier between Poland and Belarus. The attempt was partially successful, as a woman and her three children managed to escape, while her husband was detained.
The couple drove their car through barriers at the border crossing. CCTV footage circulated by Belarusian security shows a damaged vehicle caught in a traffic jam at the checkpoint. The woman and her three children then crossed the border into Belarus on foot, while her husband remained behind in an apparent attempt to slow down the pursuing Polish officers.
The woman, Zuleikhan, spoke to Belarusian media, revealing that she moved to Sweden in 2014, where her husband was working at the time. The family lived in the country for several years, before running into unspecified legal trouble and ultimately fearing their children could end up being seized and placed for adoption.
The family no longer felt safe in the country, Zuleikhan explained. They spent the past year in Poland, gathering the necessary paperwork to return to Russia - namely, to the Chechen Republic. The family was still not sure they would be allowed to leave, given that two of their children were Swedish nationals, so they resorted to the daring escape attempt.
The incident has been acknowledged by Russian diplomats, who say the woman and her children have already been accommodated in Belarus and their return to Russia is already in the works.
