EU stops 55 illegal migrants at Belarus border

December 22, BPN. The EU has not allowed 55 migrants to enter illegally from Belarus over the past day.

The Lithuanian State Border Guard Service reported that it turned away 13 migrants in the Lithuanian-Belarusian border area on December 21, while their Latvian colleagues thwarted 30 attempts. Since the beginning of the year, Lithuania has recorded 11,132 illegal attempts to cross the border.

The Polish Border Guard said that 12 foreigners tried to illegally cross the border from Belarus, taking the total of such attempts to 15,131 since the beginning of the year. 

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.