A refrigerated lorry with at least 34 migrants hidden inside was stopped in Poland. Border officials said that the vehicle had Lithuanian number plates and was headed in the direction of Germany.
A spokesperson for Poland's border guard agency said that people with various nationalities were discovered in the refrigerated compartment of the lorry, hiding behind a partition.
Among those found in the vehicle were people from Pakistan, Egypt, Somalia and Sudan.
The spokesperson highlighted that the clandestine passengers of the vehicle were found with "documents proving that they had applied for international protection while on Latvian territory."
The migrants were handed over to authorities in Lithuania, which borders directly with Poland, and are now believed to have arrived back in Latvia.
There are no further details known about the foreign nationals discovered in the lorry at the moment, including information on the status of their possible asylum cases in Latvia.
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Dangers of traveling in refrigerated trucks
The discovery was made after the lorry had been stopped for an inspection on a motorway near the Polish city of Poznan, located roughly 170 kilometers east of the German border.
The lorry driver is being investigated for any role he may have played in facilitating the irregular journey.
Poland shares a border of roughly 80 kilometers with its neighbor to the northeast, Lithuania, which, in turn, borders Latvia.
Exact details about the journey of the asylum seekers are unknown at this point — including whether they traveled to Lithuania first to hide in the truck for the irregular journey or whether they were picked up by the vehicle in Latvia and then taken all the way into Poland, crossing Lithuania along the way.
It is also uncertain who might have been involved in facilitating the journey, and whether sufficient protections were in place to ensure the safety of the migrants.
In the past, migrants hiding inside trucks have died on several occasions across Europe due to asphyxiation and related causes.
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'Hybrid warfare'
On account of the details of the journey involving the irregular movement of migrants from Latvia to Poland via Lithuania, it is strongly believed that the group had originally entered the European Union via Belarus, which shares a long border with all three of the states.
Poland and the Baltic States have been accusing the east European country of deliberately sending migrants from the Middle East and other nations to the EU's external border as part of a tactic, which the European Union has come to refer to as "hybrid warfare."
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According to the EU, the tactic was devised by Russia's autocratic leader Vladimir Putin to weaken the West, using his close ally Belarus as the intermediary.
Poland, Latvia and Lithuania meanwhile have responded to this development by fortifying their respective borders with Belarus.
The focus in the border region has mostly focused on Latvia and Lithuania in recent months following the discovery of several tunnels used for irregular entries into the EU from Belarus.
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with dpa