Syrian man found dead in state of emergency area

Spokesperson for the Voivodeship Police Headquarters in Białystok, Tomasz Krupa, informed on Thursday that the previous day the crew of a police helicopter patrolling the state of emergency area had spotted a body of a man in a field near Klimówka village. He told TVN24 that a preliminary assessment suggests it was a body of a 24-year-old Syrian, at least according to the documents found on the corpse.

"Visa documents have also been secured at the scene, proving that the man had been on Belarusian territory since mid-September," he added.

The police were investigating the circumstances of the man's death, under the supervision of Sokółka Prosecutor's Office.

This is the fifth such case near the Belarusian border. Since mid-September, the District Prosecutor's Office has been running an investigation into the death of three persons. The bodies were found in Suwałki, Białystok, and Sokółka regions.

A few days later the Regional Prosecutor's Office in Sokółka launched an inquiry into the death of another migrant, who had died in Nowy Dwór, some 500 metres from the border with Belarus, despite resuscitation attempts.

The European Union's executive summoned envoys from member states Poland, Lithuania and Latvia on Thursday over the fate of migrants stuck on their border with Belarus.

"I'm very concerned about reports of people including children stuck in forests in dire situation at external EU borders with Belarus," European Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson said in demanding a meeting with the three national ambassadors to EU hub Brussels.

The three countries have reported sharp increases in the number of migrants from Africa and the Middle East crossing into the soil from Belarus in recent months.

The EU blames Belarus for deliberately orchestrating the flow to put pressure on the bloc in retaliation for sanctions it had slapped on Minsk over human rights abuses.

Poland has imposed a state of emergency on the Belarusian border amid a surge in migrants from countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq trying to cross, in what Brussels and Warsaw say is a form of hybrid warfare designed to put pressure on the bloc over sanctions it imposed on Minsk.

In August, Poland began building a barbed wire fence along its border with Belarus to curb illegal border crossings despite criticism that some migrants were being treated inhumanely. Poland plans to strengthen its border with a system of motion sensors and cameras, modelling it on the Greek border with Turkey, its interior minister has said.