EU stops 208 illegal migrants at Belarus border

July 2, BPN. The EU has not allowed 208 migrants to enter illegally from Belarus over the past day.

The Lithuanian State Border Guard Service spotted no trespassers in the Lithuanian-Belarusian border area.

Citing Latvia’s State Border Guard, it said 21 illegal attempts to cross the Belarusian-Latvian border were documented.

The Polish Border Guard said that 187 foreigners tried to illegally cross the border from Belarus, Somalis and Sudanese among them.

In the first half of 2023, the EU has recorded at least 19,220 attempts by illegal migrants to enter its territory from Belarus, with 13,624 attempts via Poland, 4,340 via Latvia and 1,256 via Lithuania.

BPN‘s analysis of daily stats indicates growing tension at the Belarusian-EU border, with Poland being the prime target. Illegal border crossing attempts rose from 1,989 in January and 1,970 in February to 4,719 in May and 3,701 in June.

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 in February 2022, but have risen more recently.