EU stops 162 illegal migrants at Belarus border

October 30, BPN. The EU has not allowed 162 migrants to enter illegally from Belarus over the past day.

 Lithuanian State Border Guard Service reported that it turned away 32 migrants in the Lithuanian-Belarusian border area on October 29, while their Latvian colleagues thwarted four attempts. Since the start of 2022, Lithuania has recorded a total of 9,782 illegal attempts to cross the border.

The Polish Border Guard tweeted that 126 foreigners tried to cross illegally from Belarus. Border guards arrested one Ukrainian national for complicity in illegal migration. Poland has recorded a total of 2,312 illegal attempts to cross the border in October alone.

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, 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.