EU stops 152 illegal migrants at Belarus border

September 2, BPN. Over the past 24 hours, the European Union countries have not allowed 152 migrants to enter illegally from Belarus.

The Lithuanian State Border Guard Service reported that 99 migrants were turned away at the Belarusian-Lithuanian border on September 1, while their Latvian colleagues thwarted 13 attempts to cross the Belarusian-Latvian border illegally. A total of 5,616 illegal attempts to cross the border have been recorded in Lithuania in 2022.

The Polish Border Guard tweeted that 40 nationals of Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, and Eritrea tried to cross the border illegally from Belarus.

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.