The Annual Summit is the single most important event of the year for our network. It is our only in-person meeting, bringing together the migration practitioners, advisory board members, and researchers from all over Europe as well as local guests, to connect, celebrate and strategize.
Held in a different country each year, the Annual Summit highlights the work of local migration practitioners and facilitates onsite learning and exchange. This year, we chose to gather in Poland to learn from and support those of our practitioners who are working under increasing pressure due to government decisions and a more and more hostile atmosphere.
Reflect, organize and plan
After a first evening of arrivals, discovery of the beautiful retreat location far into the oldest forest of Europe, and reunion around the fire, the Annual Summit kicked off on Tuesday, September 16th, with two rich working sessions: presentation of the growing Crew, summary of the first Young-AWoN Summit held two days earlier in Warsaw, reflections and updates on the developments of the Network since the previous meeting, and brainstorming fair on AWoN Projects: Community of Practice, National Networks, Fundraising, Learning & Exchange Programme. The afternoon was dedicated to research focus-groups with two of our affiliated scholars from Lund University and KU Leuwen, and to the Official Annual Meeting – activity reports, Board renewal and next steps for the Network.
YAWoN presentation and Summit stories
One of the most cynical, harsh and yet too quickly forgotten hotspots of border violence
The east of Poland was a very special place for us to go to, this year. Since 2021, indeed, it has been the location of one of the most cynical, harsh and yet too quickly forgotten hotspots of border violence and asylum rights violations in Europe. Artificially created by Presidents Putin and Loukachenko, it turns people on the move into no less than weapons in a war of pressure and intimidation, fooling them into thinking that they will be granted asylum as soon as they step foot into the European Union. Abused and pushed by Belarusian soldiers through the forest-border, they are pushed back with increasing violence by Polish borderguards, in a complete violation of human and asylum rights on both sides.
This is the reality we were confronted with from Tuesday evening onwards. We were fortunate to discover the acclaimed heartbreaking fiction film Green Border, narrating the beginning of the ‘Poland Belarus border-crisis’ on the basis of people on the move and activists’ (including AWoN practitioners) testimonies,. This shook us all deeply, and, border survivors or not, we felt the need to gather around the fire to sing and whisper long into the night before starting another challenging day facing the reality of the wall – beyond the movie screen.
Guided by Anna Alboth (AWoN’s esteemed Advisory Board Member and Practitioner), Polish journalist and activist supporting border collective Grupa Granica, we embarked on a journey following the border. We first stopped at the fence, where a local activist and lawyer, working on the ground for the past four years, introduced us to the situation, its evolution and the persisting challenges and worsening conditions of people crossing the border. We then got to wander a bit around a very special village, home to several cultural and religious communities – Catholics, Orthodox, Muslim Tatars’, whose small mosque we had the privilege of visiting.
Our day ended in grief and silence as we entered one of the few Muslim cemeteries in Poland, where the local Tatar community has accepted to care for and bury the bodies of those who did not make it through the forest – whose corpses, names and relatives could be found and identified. About a hundred is said to have died, while four hundred more are still missing. At the cemetery, the youngest of them was sixteen.
Connect and expand
On the final day of the Summit, we left the forest to head back to the capital city, Warsaw, where we were welcomed and hosted by local practitioner Agnieszka Kosowicz, President of the Polish Migration Forum Foundation. After visiting her multicultural center, dedicated to the accompaniment and integration of people on the move in Poland, we were joined by a few members of our Advisory Board for a multifaith conversation on refugee relief. In the afternoon, representatives of Warsaw-based migration initiatives shared their work, story and challenges with our group, and a delicious dinner cooked by a collective of Chechen women.
Standing in the warmth of friendship and solidarity, our hearts full of love, grief, anger and beauty after such intense days, we held our closing ceremony and hugged each other goodbye, promising one another to be there next year – and looking forward to it already.
This Summit could not have taken place without the support of Lund Mission Society, our friends and partners all over Europe and beyond, and Practitioners building and leading the movement. Our deepest thanks to all for walking by our side towards a World of Neighbours.