Polish border guards have returned a group of 55 migrants to Belarus after they managed to reach Polish territory.

The group was stopped by the Polish border guards near the town of Czeremsza last night. The Poles say the migrants were stoned. A border guard was hit in the face. Migrants were arrested and returned to the border.

A border guard spokesman said groups of migrants tried a total of 52 times to cross the border from Belarus in 24 hours. Another group of 28 migrants tried to enter Poland on Friday evening. Barbed wire fences were erected along the border to stop it.

push back

It is estimated that there are still 3,500 immigrants in Belarus. Some of them are trying to reach the European Union. Camps are set up in the border area, where migrants are often under appalling conditions It must be kept in extreme cold.

The West accuses Belarusian President Lukashenko of using migrants as pawns to destabilize the European Union, in retaliation for European sanctions against his regime. Hundreds of migrants have now been returned to Iraq on special flights from Minsk.

Poland’s parliament passed a law in October that would allow migrants to immediately return to the border if they entered the country illegally, with a so-called refund. Dunja Mijatovic, commissioner for human rights at the Council of Europe, has called on EU member states to oppose allowing such pushbacks.