{"id":182082,"date":"2026-04-02T16:42:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T13:42:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/182082\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T16:42:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T13:42:21","slug":"lithuania-reports-surge-in-irregular-border-crossing-attempts","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/182082\/","title":{"rendered":"Lithuania reports surge in irregular border crossing attempts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

April 2, Pozirk.<\/em> <\/strong>The Lithuanian State Border Guard Service reported 35 attempts by third-country migrants to cross from Belarus on April 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Attempts have been on the rise in the last couple of weeks after cold winter, with 34 incidents reported by Lithuania on March 30.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the start of the year, Lithuania thwarted 224 attempts, 8.2 percent more than in the same period of 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Latvia reported 14 incidents on April 1, while Poland has not reported any incidents for a week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all, Belarus\u2019 western neighbors have thwarted at least 772 irregular crossings since year\u2019s start, a significant decrease from 4,187 attempts in the same period in 2025.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The flow of people desperate to cross into the EU surged in spring 2021 after Alaksandar \u0141uka\u0161enka, angered by EU sanctions, had indicated that Minsk would not prevent asylum seekers from Africa and Asia from using Belarus as a route to the EU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In June 2021, the Belarusian government suspended a readmission agreement with the EU in response to sanctions that followed the forced landing of a Ryanair flight in Minsk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Latvia, Lithuania and Poland call the migration crisis a \u201chybrid attack\u201d orchestrated by Minsk and Moscow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prime ministers of Lithuania, Latvia and Poland signed a joint declaration on February 26 to beef up border security and respond to hybrid threats. The governments committed \u201cto resist the instrumentalization of migration and other hybrid threats at the external borders of the EU, including land, sea, and airspace.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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