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Events on the Polish border are part of a bigger picture
The latest refugee crisis is but an aspect of the ever-tightening Fortress Europe policy that began to take shape in 1991-2 with the end of the cold war and the dawn of a supposed ‘liberal golden age,’ writes KEVIN OVENDEN
Migrants warm themselves near a fire at the checkpoint ‘Kuznitsa’ at the Belarus-Poland border near Grodno, Belarus

ON THE eastern border of Poland a righteous villager lights a green lamp in a window on a freezing night to send a coded signal.

It is to desperate people hiding in the forests to let them know that help is available at that house.

In so doing, the household knows it will come to the attention of the special squads of armed men who are hunting down the refugees. Perhaps of the state, perhaps fascist vigilantes. Hard to tell. Independent journalists are banned. It is a state of emergency.

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