MINSK, July 12. /TASS/. Polish law enforcement beat up and forced migrants from Syria and Afghanistan into Belarusian territory, the country's State Border Committee said.

"Yesterday, July 11, Brest border guards found two Syrians and one citizen of Afghanistan on the border with Poland. According to the foreigners, they were detained in Poland. They were seeking asylum. In response, Polish law enforcement officers began to kick and beat them with batons. Then the helpless men were forced out through an animal gate into our territory," the statement reads.

The Belarusian Investigative Committee specified that the migrants were on their way to Germany via Poland.

Polish, Latvian and Lithuanian law enforcement regularly deny entry to migrants from Africa and the Middle East seeking to get to Europe. The officers leave the bodies of dead refugees on the border. In 2023, Belarus prevented the expulsion of about 35,000 refugees, with about 31,000 in 2022. Since the beginning of the migration crisis in 2021, more than 50 cases of refugee deaths have been recorded in Belarus near its borders with EU countries.