EU stops 44 illegal migrants at Belarus border

February 19, BPN. The EU has not allowed 44 migrants to enter illegally from Belarus via Poland over the past day.

The Polish Border Guard said nationals of Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Syria tried to illegally cross the border from Belarus.

Since the start of 2023, the EU has recorded a total of 3,283 attempts by illegal migrants to enter its territory, with 2,295 attempts via Poland, 631 via Latvia and 357 via Lithuania.

Belarusian border guards said they found a body of a woman from Nigeria on February 18. The woman and her fiancé intended to cross the Belarusian-Lithuanian border illegally but the Lithuanian police allegedly sprayed tear gas in the woman’s face and turned them away.

Belarusian border authorities said that it was the sixth dead migrant found in 2023 alone.

The migration crisis at the Belarusian-EU border dates back to the spring of 2021. It escalated in November 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 in February 2022, but have risen more recently.