April 3, Pozirk. Attempts by third-country nationals to illegally cross from Belarus into the European Union (EU) soared 44-fold in March from January’s level, border guards’ data shows.
Last month, Poland did not allow at least 3,438 migrants to enter illegally from Belarus, after thwarting 356 attempts in February and 87 in January.
The Latvian border guards recorded 684 attempts in March after reporting 75 attempts in February and just five in January.
Last month, 105 illegal migrants tried to cross from Belarus into Lithuania, after reported 27 and four attempts in February and January, 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.
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.
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.
