Police say two dead migrants found near Lithuania border

February 24, BPN. The Investigative Committee opened a criminal case after Belarusian border guards had found two dead foreigners in the Brasłaŭ district, Viciebsk region, near the border with Lithuania.

Forensics are working to determine the exact cause of their death, it added.

Both victims were “submerged in the ditch,” police said. One of them was reportedly from Sri Lanka.

The Belarusian border authorities recorded a total of eight deaths since the start of 2023.

The EU has not allowed 99 migrants to enter illegally from Belarus on February 23.

The migration crisis at the Belarusian-EU border dates back to the spring of 2021. It escalated in November 2021 when thousands of migrants set up a camp near the Polish border. The Baltic states and Poland accused Belarusian authorities of creating the trouble, while the latter blamed it on the West.

Migration figures had dropped significantly by the time Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, but have risen more recently.