German police find 31 Iraqi migrants in a van near Polish border

The German police found 31 Iraqi migrants in a van in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, not far from the German-Polish border, reported dpa.

Some of the 19 men, two women and 10 children were unwell, the police said on Saturday. Some of the children were wearing damp, worn shoes. Others had sore feet after they had been wrapped in aluminium foil.

All of the refugees were taken to the police station in the city of Pasewalk.

The Polish van had crossed the border on Saturday morning and was then stopped by the police. The driver was taken into custody after police searched him and found a large knife and camouflage hood.

The number of migrants trying to enter the EU illegally via Belarus has grown significantly over the past few months.

The governments in Warsaw and Berlin accuse Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko of deliberately bringing refugees from crisis regions to the EU's external border.

At the end of May, Lukashenko announced that Minsk would no longer prevent migrants from travelling on to the EU - in response to tighter Western sanctions.