Illegal Belarus-EU border crossings up 12.6 year on year in March

March 27, Pozirk. Third-country migrants have made at least 3,129 attempts to illegally cross from Belarus into the neighboring European Union countries since the start of March, Pozirk‘s analysis of daily stats showed.

Attempts rose by 12.6 percent year on year from 2,780 recorded by Lithuania, Latvia and Poland in the same period last year.

Illegal migrant flows were the most intense at Belarus’ shared borders with Latvia and Poland, where border crossings spiked by 33 percent and 20 percent, respectively, while the attempts to cross the Belarusian-Lithuanian border plunged by 57 percent.

On March 26, Lithuanian border guards did not record any illegal border crossings from Belarus, but their Latvian colleagues thwarted 16 attempts.

The Polish Border Guard did not release its daily stats for March 26 but said it stopped 95 illegal migrants a day earlier.

Since the start of 2024, the European Union has recorded at least 3,683 attempts by illegal migrants to enter its territory from Belarus, with 2,870 attempts via Poland, 679 via Latvia and 134 via Lithuania.

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.

In June 2021, the Belarusian government announced the suspension of a readmission agreement with the EU in response to sanctions that followed the forced landing of a Ryanair flight in Minsk.

Pozirk’s analysis of daily stats indicated fluctuated tension at the Belarusian-EU border throughout 2023 with illegal border crossings picking up the pace in February.

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

In August 2023, the interior ministers of Poland and the Baltic States warned that they would close the border with Belarus in response to a surge in illegal migration.

See also: Poland to build observation towers along shared border with Belarus