Shafaq News/ More than 10,000 migrants, predominantly Iraqi nationals, have crossed the Belarusian borders with Lithuania in 2022 so far, the head of Lutke (Summit) foundation, Aray Jalal, said on Friday.

Jalal said in a report he published earlier today that Lithuanian authorities have filed 154 lawsuits against persons smuggling migrants accross the Belarusian-Lithuanian borders in the first 10 months of this year.

Data by Lutke showed that 8,000 illegal migrants have crossed to the European Union from Belarus in 2021.

Jalal said that 10,000 persons, mainly Iraqis, have entered the European Union illegally this year so far.

In November, more than 500 persons attempted to escape the temporary residence in Lithuania.

The EU accuses Belarus of flying migrants into the country and then pushing them to cross into Poland and - to a lesser extent - Lithuania and Latvia in retaliation for sanctions imposed on Minsk over human rights abuses.

International organisations have accused Poland's right-wing nationalist government of breaching humanitarian standards in forcing some migrants back into Belarus, a charge Warsaw denies.