EU stops 173 illegal migrants at Belarus border

September 21, BPN. European Union countries have not allowed 173 migrants to illegally enter from Belarus over the past 24 hours.

The Lithuanian State Border Guard Service reported that it turned away 135 migrants in the Lithuanian-Belarusian border area on September 20, a record daily high this year. Since the start of 2022, Lithuania has recorded a total of 7,317 illegal attempts to cross the border.

The Polish Border Guard tweeted that 38 nationals of Afghanistan, Iran, and Syria tried to illegally cross the border from Belarus in the past 24 hours. Border guards arrested a Latvian carrying ten illegal migrants.

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.