Lithuania wraps up fence construction at Belarus border

August 29, BPN. Last week, Lithuania completed the construction of a fence with barbed wire stretching along 502 kilometers out of 679 of its shared border with Belarus, BNS reported.

EPSO-G, the contractor, said that the fence is to be examined by a government commission on August 29.

Lithuania has built the fence as a response to the 2021 migration crisis, when nearly 4,200 people entered the country illegally from Belarus. In August 2021, Lithuanian border guards started turning migrants back to Belarus. Since then, border guards thwarted 13,300 attempts to enter Lithuania illegally.

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.