EU stops 61 illegal migrants at Belarus border

November 16, BPN. The EU has not allowed 61 migrants to enter illegally from Belarus over the past day.

Lithuanian State Border Guard Service reported that it turned away 33 migrants in the Lithuanian-Belarusian border area on November 15. Since the start of 2022, Lithuania has recorded a total of 10,291 illegal attempts to cross the border.

The Polish Border Guard tweeted that 28 nationals of Afghanistan and Yemen tried to cross illegally from Belarus. Border guards have recorded 1,302 illegal attempts to cross the border in November alone, taking the total to 13,163 since the start of 2022.

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.