EU stops 58 illegal migrants at Belarus border

January 3, BPN. The EU has not allowed 58 migrants to enter illegally from Belarus over the past day. 

The Lithuanian State Border Guard Service did not record illegal border crossing attempts on January 2, but their Latvian colleagues thwarted 30 attempts. In 2022, Lithuania recorded a total of 11,211 illegal attempts to cross the border.

The Polish Border Guard said that 28 foreigners tried to illegally cross the border from Belarus. 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, 2022 but have risen more recently.