Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko told migrants stranded at the country's border with Poland on Friday that his country would help them to return home if they wanted but would not force them.

Thousands of migrants are stuck on the European Union's eastern frontier, in what the EU says a crisis Minsk engineered by distributing Belarusian visas in the Middle East, flying them in and trying to push them across the border.

Lukashenko said it was the EU that deliberately provoked a humanitarian crisis that needed to be resolved. And he told the migrants he would not play politics with their fate.

In his first public appearance at the border since the start of the crisis, Lukashenko met migrants at a warehouse-turned shelter and told them they were free to head west or go home as they chose.

An Iraqi teenager told Lukashenko she could not return home and hoped to continue on to Europe. "We won't only hope," Lukashenko answered. "We will work together on your dream."

Lukashenko said no-one would be coerced. 

"If you want to go westwards, we won't detain you, choke you, beat you," he said as hundreds of migrants applauded. "It's up to you. Go through. Go."

"We won't in any circumstances detain you, tie your hands and load you on planes to send you home if you don't want that," he added.