EU stops 60 illegal migrants at Belarus border

March 1, BPN. The EU has not allowed 60 migrants to enter illegally from Belarus over the past day.

The Lithuanian State Border Guard Service didn’t spot any trespassers in the Lithuanian-Belarusian border area.

Citing Latvia’s State Border Guard, it said 14 illegal attempts to cross the Belarusian-Latvian border were documented.

The Polish Border Guard said that 46 foreigners tried to illegally cross the border from Belarus, Afghans and Syrians among them.

Since the start of 2023, the EU has recorded a total of 4,023 attempts by illegal migrants to enter its territory, with 2,917 attempts via Poland, 749 via Latvia and 357 via Lithuania.

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.

The Belarusian State Border Committee said border guards documented 12 attempts to push back migrants from Poland to Belarus in February.