EU stops 195 illegal migrants at Belarus border

September 9, BPN. Over the past 24 hours, the European Union neighbors have not allowed 195 migrants to enter illegally from Belarus.

The Lithuanian State Border Guard Service reported that 122 migrants were turned away at the Belarusian-Lithuanian border on September 8, while their Latvian colleagues thwarted 28 attempts. A total of 6,159 attempts have been recorded in Lithuania in 2022.

The Polish Border Guard tweeted that 45 nationals of Afghanistan, Egypt, and Cuba tried to cross from Belarus. Three Ukrainians who intended to pick up and take to Germany six nationals of Egypt and Syria were arrested 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.