EU stops 163 illegal migrants at Belarus border

November 21, BPN. The EU has not allowed 163 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 on November 20, while their Latvian colleagues thwarted four attempts. Since the start of 2022, Lithuania has recorded a total of 10,492 illegal attempts to cross the border.

The Polish Border Guard tweeted that 102 foreigners tried to cross illegally from Belarus, including nationals of Egypt and Gambia. Border guards arrested one Ukrainian for complicity in illegal migration. 

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.