Illegal border crossings between Belarus, EU soar by 32 percent in 2023

January 1, Pozirk. The European Union (EU) has not allowed at least 84 migrants to enter illegally from Belarus on December 31.

The Lithuanian State Border Guard Service thwarted 28 border crossing attempts but said their Latvian colleagues did not register any border violations for eight consecutive days.

The Polish Border Guard said 56 foreigners tried to illegally enter from Belarus. A group of illegal migrants reportedly threw stones and burning tree branches at border guards.

In 2023, the illegal border crossing attempts reached 42,078, an increase of some 32 percent from 2022. Foreigners focused on Poland (25,571 attempts) and Latvia (13,863 attempts) as their primary targets last year, while the number of border violations on the Belarusian-Lithunian border fell more than fourfold (2,644 attempts).

Pozirk‘s analysis of daily stats indicated fluctuated tension at the Belarusian-EU border throughout 2023 with a significant decrease by the end of the year. Illegal border crossings fell to 726 attempts in December after peaking at 5,474 and 5,054 attempts in October and July, respectively.

The migration crisis at the Belarusian-EU border started in spring 2021 after Alaksandar Łukašenka, angered by EU sanctions, had indicated that Minsk would not prevent migrants from Africa and Asia from using Belarus as a route to the EU. It escalated in November 2021, with hundreds of migrants storming the Polish border.

The Baltic states and Poland accused Belarusian authorities of creating the trouble, while the latter blamed it on the West.

In late August, the interior ministers of Poland and the Baltic States warned that they would close the border with Belarus in case of a surge in illegal migration.