Poland detains more refugees as attempted crossings decline

Poland's border guards have detained 45 refugees who attempted to cross the border from Belarus overnight.

The refugees were part of two larger groups hurling rocks and tear gas, Border Guard spokesperson Lieutenant Anna Michalska told AFP news agency on Friday.

A group of around 500 people attempted to breach the border on Thursday evening near Dubicze Cerkiewne, she said.

"People in this group threw rocks and someone also hurled tear gas at Polish officials. At the same time the Belarusian personnel were using lasers to blind them," she said.

"Forty-five people were detained and ordered to leave Poland," Michalska added.

"The Belarusian side is supplying the migrants with the tear gas, it's obvious they didn't bring it from their countries of origin," Michalska added.

READ MORE: Explained: Migrant crisis on Poland-Belarus border

Soldiers injured

Four Polish soldiers sustained injuries that did not require hospitalisation, she said.

Overall border guards recorded 255 attempted crossings on Thursday. 

Since the beginning of the year, Poland's border guard service says it has recorded over 34,000 attempted crossings from Belarus, including over 6,000 so far in November, nearly 17,300 in October, close to 7,700 in September and over 3,500 in August when the crisis began.

While there has been a decline in the number of attempted breaches over the last month, Michalska said the "latest attempts have become more aggressive."

A makeshift migrant camp on at the Bruzgi border crossing was been cleared, 

Minsk said Thursday, as hundreds of Iraqis who failed to make the crossing to enter EU member Poland were flown home, mostly to Iraq.

The EU has accused Belarus of artificially engineering the crisis by encouraging migrants to come to the country with the promise of an easy crossing into the European Union.

Minsk has rejected the charges and criticised the EU for not taking in the migrants seeking to cross over.

READ MORE: Who are the Iraqis at the center of the EU-Belarus refugee dispute?