MINSK, January 9. /TASS/. Belarusian border guards prevented Lithuanian law enforcement officers from dropping a group of refugees into Belarus, the country’s State Border Committee said in a statement on Monday.

"Yesterday, on January 8, Lithuanian security officers’ attempt to send refugees [to Belarus] was recorded on the border with Lithuania," the statement reads. "Belarusian border patrol guards at the scene of the incident took actions that made it possible to prevent a violation of the state border," the committee added.

Lithuanian and Polish law enforcement officers regularly try to force illegal migrants into Belarus, along with leaving the bodies of dead refugees on the border.

A migrant crisis broke out along Belarus’ borders with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia in November 2021. Several thousand migrants from Middle Eastern and African countries seeking to reach Europe repeatedly tried to enter Poland and the Baltic states via Belarus.