EU stops 141 illegal migrants at Belarus border

September 10, BPN. Over the past 24 hours, the European Union countries have not allowed 141 migrants to enter illegally from Belarus. 

The Lithuanian State Border Guard Service reported that 105 migrants were turned away at the Belarusian-Lithuanian border on September 9, while their Latvian colleagues thwarted 4 attempts. A total of 6,264 attempts have been recorded in Lithuania in 2022. 

The Polish Border Guard tweeted that 32 nationals of Iraq, Yemen, and Syria tried to cross from Belarus. Foreigners came to Belarus via Russia. One Ukrainian who intended to pick up and take to Germany eight nationals of Syria was arrested near the border checkpoint in Czeremcha. 

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.