EU stops 111 illegal migrants at Belarus border

April 4, BPN. The EU has not allowed 111 migrants to enter illegally from Belarus over the past day.

The Lithuanian State Border Guard Service spotted 55 trespassers in the Lithuanian-Belarusian border area.

Citing Latvia’s State Border Guard, it said 5 illegal attempts to cross the Belarusian-Latvian border were documented.

The Polish Border Guard said that 51 foreigners tried to illegally cross the border from Belarus, Egyptians and Syrians among them. A Ukrainian facilitator was arrested.

Since the start of 2023, the EU has recorded a total of 7,739 attempts by illegal migrants to enter its territory, with 5,709 attempts via Poland, 1,345 via Latvia and 685 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.