EU stops 115 illegal migrants at Belarus border

September 27, BPN. Over the past 24 hours, the European Union countries have not allowed 115 migrants to enter illegally from Belarus.

The Polish Border Guard tweeted that 41 foreigners tried to illegally cross the border from Belarus. Border guards arrested two nationals of Poland and Tajikistan who assisted illegal migrants.

The Lithuanian State Border Guard Service reported that it turned away 64 migrants in the Lithuanian-Belarusian border area on September 26, while their Latvian colleagues thwarted 10 attempts. Since the start of 2022, Lithuania has recorded a total of 7,927 illegal attempts to cross the border.

One day earlier, Agnė Bilotaitė, Lithuania’s interior minister, informed the State Defense Council of about 300 incidents, in which migrants or people accompanying them damaged the border fence. According to her, 120 incidents were registered in September alone, Delfi reported. 

Earlier, Lithuania accused Belarusian authorities of contributing to the migrant crisis and destructing the border fence. Lithuania will find ways to prevent it, Kęstutis Budrys, the Lithuanian president’s national security adviser, said on September 26.

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.