the laughing fit

But instead of getting to Germany, they ended up back in Belarus.

Minutes later, the two men were arrested by Belorussian border guards and later sentenced to 10 days in jail.

Belarus is separated from Europe by kilometres of barbed wire, guard towers, automated sirens and powerful search lights.

Prosecutors say the would-be migrants did not go for the easy option of using a spade - apparently, they thought buying one in a shop would immediately give the game away.

The two Egyptian men travelled to Belarus from neighbouring Russia where they arrived on tourist visas a few months ago.

Second attempt

But even the prison term did not stop the pair.

When Belorussian authorities released the men and put them on a train back to Moscow, the officials were hoping that the Egyptians would never return.

But the two men got off the train hundreds of miles away from the Russian capital and decided to have another go.

This time, they chose the border between Russia and Ukraine as their starting point.

But the men clearly ran out of luck. Russian border guards arrested the Egyptians long before they got anywhere near Ukraine.

"I know it all sounds like a really bad joke," Evgeny Petrov from the Bryansk regional prosecutor's office told the BBC.

"But we've checked the story time and again, and it seems to be true! I must say, this is the weirdest way of illegally crossing the border I've ever come across," Mr Petrov said.

The migrants are now in pre-trial detention in Russia, expecting a legal hearing.

If convicted, they will have to pay a fine, and will then be extradited back to Egypt.

This time, police officers will probably escort them all the way to the departure gates of Moscow's Sheremetyevo international airport.