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Minsk reports another dead refugee found near border with Latvia

The committee notes that the body was most likely moved from the neighboring territory through the fence

MINSK, January 10. /TASS/. Belarusian border guards have found the body of another refugee near the Latvian border, the press service of the State Border Committee of Belarus said on Tuesday.

"At the beginning of the week, a Belarusian border guard unit discovered a foreigner's body on the border with Latvia. The body was lying several meters from the fence, installed on the Latvian territory," the report said.

The committee notes that the body was most likely moved from the neighboring territory through the fence. "In addition, a wire section was dismantled in the border fence, which could have been used to move the body of the refugee," the border committee said. The circumstances of the incident are being looked into.

Earlier on Tuesday, the State Border Committee reported on the discovery of an African-looking man's body near the Latvian border in the early hours of December 10. The refugees staying nearby said that Latvian law enforcement officers had taken them to the border, ignored their requests to help the man and forced them to cross into Belarusian territory at gunpoint.

Latvian, Lithuanian, as well as Polish law enforcement regularly try to push illegal migrants into Belarus, as well as leave the bodies of refugees on the border.

The migration crisis on the borders of Belarus with Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland escalated in November 2021. Several thousand migrants on their way to Europe from the Middle East and Africa have repeatedly attempted to enter Poland and the Baltic states from Belarus.