BRUSSELS, Aug 18 (LETA--DPA) - The European Union took aim again at Belarus as ministers held talks on Wednesday on a sharp increase in the number of people crossing the bloc's external borders at Lithuania, Latvia and Poland.

"We condemn the Belarusian attempt to instrumentalize human beings for political purposes," said Slovenian Interior Minister Ales Hojs, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency and chaired the videoconference with his counterparts from other member states.

The bloc agreed to provide additional experts and technical support to the affected states, Hojs said.

Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko announced at the end of May that Minsk would no longer prevent migrants from travelling on to the bloc in response to tighter sanctions on the former Soviet republic, which shares a more than 1,000-kilometre border with the EU.

Since then, Lithuania in particular has seen an influx of people from the Middle East - particularly Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan - cross the border with Belarus. More than 4,000 people have arrived so far this year, compared to fewer than 100 in the whole of 2020, according to Vilnius.

The Lithuanian border guard published a video purporting to show Belarusian security forces pushing 35 migrants across the border on?Tuesday, entering Lithuanian territory themselves in the process.

Vilnius had accused Minsk of "repeated violations of the Lithuanian state border" in a note sent to the Belarusian leadership, the Baltic nation's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.

European Parliament President David Sassoli visited Vilnius and the Lithuanian-Belarusian border on Wednesday. "The EU is united in response to the Belarusian regime's flouting of international law," he wrote on Twitter.

In recent weeks, Poland has seen a similar increase. Some 1,900 people tried to illegally cross the border into Poland from Belarus in August, Interior Ministry figures from Tuesday show. Border guards prevented 1,175 people from crossing the border and a further 760 people were detained and placed in closed shelters, Warsaw said.

Latvia makes similar accusations against Minsk, and has declared a state of emergency in parts of the country until November.

In Poland, whose government is one of the most wary about mass migration in the bloc, more than 900 soldiers are helping stop migrants entering the country via its border with Belarus, Defence Minister Mariusz Baszczak announced Wednesday on Twitter.

"It looks like this is an organized action, but we are doing everything to avert negative consequences and seal our border," Deputy Foreign Minister Pawel Jablonski said in a written statement.

EU relations with Minsk are at rock bottom after a year of protests in Belarus, unleashed when large parts of society disputed Lukashenko's election win.

The EU imposed sanctions on Belarus for human rights abuses in response to peaceful demonstrations and the violent repression of civil society.

Lithuania in particular is one of the biggest supporters of the Belarusian pro-democracy movement and has long been a refuge for Belarusian opposition figures.