EU stops 108 illegal migrants at Belarus border

September 7, BPN. Over the past 24 hours, the European Union neighbors have not allowed 108 migrants to enter illegally from Belarus.

The Lithuanian State Border Guard Service reported that 78 migrants were turned away at the Belarusian-Lithuanian border on September 6, while their Latvian colleagues thwarted 3 attempts. A total of 5,978 attempts have been recorded in Lithuania in 2022.

Earlier, the Lithuanian interior ministry proposed extending the state of emergency at the border with Belarus and Russia until December 16. Lithuania’s foreign ministry also handed over a note of protest to the Belarusian embassy in connection with instances of deliberate damage to the fence at the border.

The Polish Border Guard tweeted that 27 nationals of Egypt, India, and Mongolia tried to cross from Belarus. An Ethiopian national transporting five Egyptians who had illegally crossed the Belarusian-Polish border has been apprehended near the border checkpoint in Dubicze Cerkiewne.

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.