WATCH: Asylum seekers stuck on Poland-Belarus frontier for more than two months attempt to destroy border fence with rocks & logs

A group of asylum seekers from a refugee camp on the Belarusian frontier with Poland has been filmed attempting to destroy a border fence after more than two months of being stuck in no man’s land between the two nations.

As reported by the Polish authorities, asylum seekers near the border town of Usnarz Gorny attempted to forcibly break the fence in order to enter into EU territory.

“The migrants threw stones in the direction of the border guards and the military, and their actions were assisted by the Belarusian officers,” the Polish Border Guard claimed.

According to reports, those trying to destroy the fence were tear-gassed.

Poland revealed that “16 illegal migrants who forcibly entered the territory of Poland were returned to the border with Belarus.”

In turn, the Belarusian authorities pointed the finger at Poland, blaming Warsaw for its poor treatment of the people stuck between the two countries.

“Refugees from Afghanistan, who have been living on the borderline on the Polish side for more than two months, tired of no prospects of receiving a response to their asylum applications in Poland, have taken a step of desperation,” Minsk said.

The difficult situation on the EU-Belarus border began after Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko warned that his country would no longer make any effort to stop illegal immigration. Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland have claimed that the government in Minsk has flown in people from abroad and is shuttling them to the border as a form of warfare.

The number of migrants has grown significantly in the past few months. Now, the EU countries bordering Belarus are seeing asylum applications grow an order of magnitude higher than previous years.

The bloc’s treatment of migrants from Belarus has been subject to criticism by human rights organizations, including London-based NGO Amnesty International. Last month, the group lambasted Poland in particular, accusing it of illegally stranding 32 Afghan migrants, leaving them without access to clean water, shelter, and medicine.

“Poland has been cruelly holding this group of people on their border in horrendous conditions for weeks,” said Eve Geddie, director of Amnesty International’s European Institutions Office.

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