He didn’t even have time to pack: Ukrainian man swiftly deported from Poland for a traffic violation

A Ukrainian man whom Polish authorities declared deported turned out to be Lviv blogger Andriy Havryliv.

By his own account, he was not a permanent resident of Poland and had come there for just a few days, spending a total of six days in the country.

The grounds for a five-year entry ban were the blogger’s decision to drive a car onto the territory of the protected mountain lake Morskie Oko. Polish authorities deemed this a violation sufficient to impose the restrictive measure.

Havryliv himself rejected the term “deportation,” clarifying that he had left Poland on his own — on the eve of the court ruling. According to him, the barrier at the entrance to the protected zone was raised, he encountered no park rangers, security personnel, or police along the way, and did not notice the “No entry” sign.

The blogger apologized to Poles for his actions, but considers the five-year entry ban groundless. In his view, “entering a protected zone without committing a crime is not in itself grounds for such a restriction.”