Migrants damage fence at Belarusian-Lithuanian border over 400 times

November 29, BPN. A spokesman for the Lithuanian State Border Guard Service, Giedrius Mišutis, has told Delfi that migrants had damaged the barrier fence at its border with Belarus 442 times since the beginning of 2022.

At present, the flow of migrants trying to enter Lithuania illegally from the territory of Belarus “remains the same,” Mišutis said. Border guards have not recorded a significant rise in attempts to cross the border illegally, he noted.

“There is movement on the Polish border, more migrants have appeared on the Latvian border. This means that the problem of illegal migration on the border with Belarus has not disappeared,” he added.

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.