Belarus to receive $300,000 from IOM for combatting irregular migration

November 6, Pozirk. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) Development Fund has allocated $300,000 to Belarus, State Border Committee spokesman Anton Byčkoŭski told journalists yesterday.

The official described the funds as technical assistance to build the State Border Committee’s capacity in the face of a potential rise in the number of migrants arriving at the border.

Byčkoŭski criticized the European Union for its reluctance to fund Belarus’ efforts to control migration. Funding by the EU and other international organizations could demonstrate a stronger capacity to effectively address irregular migration and its consequences, he added.

The Belarusian leader last week reiterated his refusal to cooperate with the EU on tackling irregular migration.

“Firstly, enduring comprehensive sanctions pressure, we don’t have spare resources or moral obligations to solve the problems of those who have imposed these sanctions. They are stifling us by sanctions while asking us to protect them… As soon as they imposed sanctions and severed cooperation on migration issues, I told them honestly and frankly that we will not be catching anyone and will not be protecting them,” Łukašenka said, speaking at the III Minsk International Conference on Eurasian Security on October 28.

Byčkoŭski, however, indicated that his agency was working to catch undocumented migrants.

Over the past four years, border guards busted 129 irregular migration channels, arrested 296 suspects, stopped more than 1,400 irregular migrants and filed 143 criminal cases, Byčkoŭski said. More than 9,000 foreigners reportedly faced minor offences charges for violating Belarusian migration legislation.

According to him, Belarusian authorities have recorded 96 cases of migrant deaths in the border area since 2021, with cases rising from seven in 2021 and nine in 2022 to 31 in 2023, 25 and 24 in 2024 and 2025, respectively.

Minsk consistently blames Polish, Lithuanian, and Latvian officers for pushbacks and the suffering endured by third-country nationals trying to cross from Belarus into the European Union to seek asylum.

However, a report by Oxfam and the Egala human rights group, released earlier this year, stated that migrants attempting to cross into the EU from Belarus face pushbacks and violence on both sides of the border.

The flow of people desperate to cross into the EU surged in spring 2021 after Alaksandar Łukašenka, angered by EU sanctions, had indicated that Minsk would not prevent asylum seekers from Africa and Asia from using Belarus as a route to the EU.

Latvia, Lithuania and Poland call the migration crisis a “hybrid attack” orchestrated by Minsk and Moscow.

Security

Security

Lithuania sees six-month high in irregular border crossings from Belarus

November 2, Pozirk. Lithuania registered a six-month peak in irregular attempts by third-country nationals to enter from Belarusian territory in October: 275, according to data from Lithuania’s border guard service. Of those attempts, 116, or 42 percent, were reported in …

Read