Human Rights & Public Liberties

Human Rights & Public Liberties

Newsletter
Published on: 13 Jan, 2021

Belarusian migrants at the Lithuanian border

Published on: 17 August, 2021
The Lithuanian/Belarusian border/Aljazeera.

The Lithuanian/Belarusian border/Aljazeera.

A Lithuanian government press conference on Tuesday addressed the increasing border crossings from Belarus.

Representatives from the Foreign Ministry, the PM’s office, and the Border forces participated.

On Wednesday European Union Home Affairs Ministers will hold an extraordinary meeting to discuss the surge of illegal border crossings from Belarus to EU member state Lithuania.

Representatives of the EU border agency Frontex and Europol will also take part in the video conference.

There is little doubt Belarusian officials have been involved in the influx.

Lithuania has published a video shot by Frontex, the EU border agency, showing vehicles likely used by the Belarusian border guard escorting migrants to the border with the EU.

MPs in the Baltic state on Tuesday debated whether to build a 4-meter-high metal fence topped with razor wire along about 315 miles (508km) of its 420-mile border with Belarus, as well as allowing the army to patrol the border.

Border guards last week pushed about 700 people back into Belarus, allowing only women with children to stay.

The European Commission is poised to release €36m (£30m) in aid to help Lithuania provide shelter, interpreters, and other facilities for asylum seekers.

Latvia has detained 283 individuals for illegally crossing from Belarus since 6 August.

Poland, meanwhile, recorded 491 asylum seekers from Belarus in the first week of August, nine times more than the previous week, after it gave refuge to Tsimanouskaya, who refused to return home from the Tokyo Games.

Aljazeera/Agencies.