Benjamin* arrived in Poland on June 20, 2023, after crossing the Belarusian border. He told the border guards who arrested him shortly after his arrival in the country that he was 16 years old. He was then taken to the open center for migrants in Biala Podlaska in the east, which at that time housed families with children – today it only accommodates single men. He stayed there for ten days before being relocated.

"One morning, the border guards came to take me and two other young people to the hospital. We took turns going to see the dentist. I sat down in the chair and opened my mouth. She looked at my teeth for five minutes, without saying anything to me. And three days later we were transferred to the adult center in Lesznowola, almost 170 kilometers away.

Dental examinations are one of the experimental techniques used by officials to assess the age of migrants. They are sometimes supplemented by a panoramic X-ray of the jaw. France favors bone tests. But the validity of these examinations is not backed by any scientific proof, particularly on adolescents aged 16 to 18.

From the first day, I understood that it would be very difficult. It was not an environment for us young people. We were mixed with everyone. There was a lot of tension between people, and fights. It scared me.

Being locked up is a nightmare. I had never experienced anything like this in my entire life. You feel abandoned, very alone. We are told that we are not in prison, even though it works the same: we get up at a fixed time, we always eat lunch at the same time, we go out into the courtyard. I felt like a criminal when I had done nothing wrong, I found it so unfair.

When you are sick, they take you to the hospital in handcuffs. And when you arrive in the waiting room, everyone looks at you like you're a criminal. If Cameroon was not so dangerous for me, I would have returned.

'I wanted to end my life'

When I arrived at the center, the guards told me "you will stay here three months." After three months, I was told I had to stay three more months. This announcement floored me. I asked to see the psychologist, but he only gave me sleeping pills for adults.

Some days I really wasn't doing well at all. At one point, I wanted to end my life.

Poland has six closed centers for migrants. The living conditions inside these structures, which resemble prisons in every way, are often denounced. In a report published in February 2024 which focused on visits carried out in March 2022, the Anti-Torture Committee of the Council of Europe said that "the vast majority of detainees spend days and months in a state of idleness, without significant activity, locked in their cell for up to 23 hours a day."

I applied for asylum immediately after arriving in Lesznowola. But to put together the file, I needed a translator. I asked, but no one ever came. Then, I filled out a document that I didn't understand.

During my stay, I was asked for papers which proved that I was a minor. My mother, in Cameroon, sent the original of my birth certificate by DHL [delivery company]. But I didn't hear back after that.

'I’m coming back to life little by little'

After six months in this center, I was released. I am coming back to life little by little. I was able to enrol in college. I am part of an international class where there are other foreigners. But when I find myself alone at home, it is much more difficult. Suddenly, all my dark thoughts come back.

Last March, I received a date for my asylum interview. So the documents I filled out were the correct ones, I guess. The state pays me 730 zloty [170 euros] per month. With that, I pay for the bus to school and my food.

Many foreigners I know want to leave Poland. I don't have family anywhere in Europe. And I no longer have the strength to move, I just want to be safe and no longer fear for my life. The center had given me a bad image of the country. But when I arrived in the capital, I realized that the mentality of the border guards was not that of all Polish people. And above all, when I'm at school, I forget everything. I feel like I have a normal life."

*Name has been changed

Originally published in French