Polish media sources have reported that unknown individuals set fire to a flat where a Chechen asylum seeker family lives, in the city of Białystok, Poland.

On Monday, April 15, at about 4:40am, unknown individuals set fire to the door of a flat in the Zielone Wzgórza district of Białystok. An older Chechen woman named Raisa Islamova smelled the smoke first and woke her son Khumid, his wife Eliza and their two small children. At first they thought that the fire started in the kitchen, and tried to leave. It was at this time that they realized that the source of flames was the door. With the help one of their neighbors, they were able to put out the flames. A short time later, a group of police officers arrived on the scene, but interestingly, they did not question any residents of the building, and left when they completed their report.

“They don’t like strangers. When we go out, they say, Poland is for the Poles, not for you, not for gypsies. However, we don’t have any enemies and we don’t have any idea who did this,” said Eliza Chapanova, wife of Khumid Israilov.

Eliza knows that they should be very careful. She remembered that once a group of young people threw empty bottles at them while her husband and his friend were crossing a street close to their home.

Their neighbors complain behind their back, saying “It is their fault. Since they moved in here, we have no more peace. Before they came, these events didn’t occur.”

This is not the first arson committed against Chechen refugees in Białystok. Earlier, in 2012, some other unknown individuals set fire to another Chechen family’s flat. So far, Polish police have not arrested even one suspect. It seems that as they continue to fail at finding the perpetrators, these kinds of hate crimes will continue to happen.

*Text was written by Waynakh Online and edited by Michael Capobianco