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A man who had fled from Aleppo found accommodation in a Polish hospital after crossing the border
Photo: MARTIN DIVISEK / EPA
For weeks, thousands of people have been staying at the Belarusian-Polish border in the cold to get into the EU.
Many came to Belarus by plane; the ruler Alexander Lukashenko is said to have brought them into the country to put pressure on the EU's external border.
Returned migrants now report severe abuse - both by Polish and Belarusian police officers.
They were beaten and tortured, several victims from the Kurdish autonomous regions in Iraq told the dpa news agency.
A 38-year-old from Dohuk said he was mistreated and later forcibly deported from Belarus.
In addition, he and other people seeking protection received neither water nor food.
The Iraqi wants to try again to get there, despite his disappointment with the countries of Europe.
"The Belarusian authorities have betrayed us"
"We were treated inhumanely," said a 71-year-old Yezidis who says she no longer feels safe in Iraq and therefore wants to visit relatives in Germany.
The terrorist militia Islamic State (IS) abducted several of their children.
A 41-year-old man from Erbil also said he was tortured by officers from Belarus and Poland.
He also says: "The Belarusian authorities have betrayed us."
For days, refugees from the Middle East have been staying at the Belarusian-Polish border in the cold to get to the EU.
Among them are reportedly Syrians and Afghans as well as many people from the autonomous Kurdish regions in northern Iraq.
The region is considered to be comparatively stable, but like the rest of the country is suffering from an economic crisis.
The government in Baghdad brought 430 Iraqi migrants back to their homeland on a special flight on Thursday.
The European Union accuses Lukashenko of smuggling those seeking protection in an organized manner from crisis regions to the EU's external border.
Warsaw reacts with harshness and a law that, according to critics, violates EU law because it suspends the right to asylum.
However, the EU is holding back from criticizing Poland.
mrc / dpa