Refugees hijack Polish train in protest over living conditions

15 Dec, 2009 16:25 / Updated 14 years ago

About 230 refugees from Russia and Georgia hijacked a train in West Poland on Tuesday protesting against life conditions in refugee camps and bad attitude of the local population.

None of the refugees traveling on Wroclaw-Dresden passenger train had a ticket. Polish conductors offered them to buy tickets but they refused to do so and did not leave the train.

The protesters said they wanted to take the train to Strasbourg, but polish police made them disembark as the train approached the border with Germany.

Polish border guard spokesperson Anna Galon said, "We used neither direct force nor any police means taking into account that there were 60 children among the refugees,"'

According to border guards the refugees have violated the border regime and after the paper work is done the detainees will be placed at the refugee camps where they initially came from.

Supposedly the hijackers were trying to attract attention and speed up the process of acquiring refugee status.