Night crossings: Germany braces as Belarus route swells migrant flows

A female police officer escorts migrants at a camp in Eisenhuettenstadt, Germany, October 14, 2021. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke

EISENHUETTENSTADT, Germany (Reuters) - Zhina ran in the dead of night through a forest near the Belarusian-Polish border. Crucifix clenched in her pocket, she slipped with her mother and younger sister through a hole cut in the wire fence by men she believed were Belarusian police.

Last week, the 17-year-old from Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan arrived at a rapidly swelling refugee camp in eastern Germany, a few km (miles) from the Polish frontier. She was one of more than 100 refugees arriving each day as news of the Belarus corridor to Europe spreads around the Middle East.