EU stops 215 illegal migrants at Belarus border

August 22, BPN. The European Union countries have stopped 215 illegal migrants from entering from Belarus on August 20 and 21.

The Lithuanian State Border Guard Service reported that it stopped 52 migrants at the Lithuanian-Belarusian border, taking a total number of illegal border crossing attempts to 4,552 since the start of 2022.

Latvian border guards thwarted 52 attempts to cross the Belarusian-Latvian border illegally on the weekend.

Polish border authorities tweeted about stopping 53 nationals of Nepal, Cameroon, Mali, Senegal, Ghana, and Uganda.

The migration crisis at the Belarusian-EU border dates back to the spring of 2021. It escalated on November 8, 2021, when thousands of migrants set up a camp near the Polish border. The Baltic states and Poland accused Belarusian authorities of creating the trouble at the border, while the latter blamed it on the West.

Migration figures had dropped significantly by the time Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, but have risen more recently.