EU stops 180 illegal migrants at Belarus border

November 19, BPN. The EU has not allowed 180 migrants to enter illegally from Belarus over the past day.

The Lithuanian State Border Guard Service reported that it turned away 57 migrants in the Lithuanian-Belarusian border area. Since the beginning of the year, Lithuania has recorded 10,397 illegal attempts to cross the border.

The Lithuanian service, citing Latvia’s State Border Guard, said 13 illegal attempts to cross the Belarusian-Latvian border were documented.

The Polish Border Guard said that 110 Egyptians and Pakistanis tried to illegally cross the border from Belarus. Six people were arrested on suspicion of helping them.

On November 18, Polish officials opened the first section of an “electronic barrier” on the border with Belarus. This essentially is a system of CCTV cameras and motion sensors.

Migrants made 1,300 illegal attempts to cross from Belarus this month (a decrease from 8,900 in November 2021), and 13,200 illegal attempts since the beginning of the year, the Polish Border Guard said.

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.