EU stops 28 illegal migrants at Belarus border

December 5, BPN. The EU has not allowed 28 migrants to enter illegally from Belarus over the past day.

The Lithuanian State Border Guard Service did not report illegal border crossings on December 4 but said that their Latvian colleagues thwarted seven attempts. Since the beginning of the year, Lithuania has recorded 10,800 illegal attempts to cross the border.

The Polish Border Guard said that 21 foreigners tried to illegally cross the border from Belarus. The border guards arrested two Ukrainians 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 rose more recently. The number of reported attempts has decreased in the last couple of weeks.