In 2021, the border zone between Poland and Belarus became a three-kilometre-wide no-go area, where refugees found themselves trapped in a brutal situation. They became pawns in a political game: Belarus promised them free passage to the European Union, but in Poland, they encountered deportations that forced them to return to the Belarusian side. There, they were again forced to cross over to the Polish side – a nightmarish stalemate in the inhospitable landscape of treacherous swamps.