Lithuania: barbed wire is missing to counter the wave of immigrants from Belarus

2021-08-09T17:46:03.530Z

In July alone, Lithuanian border guards blocked 100 times more immigrants than last January. Currently the immigrants, mostly citizens of Iraq, Congo and Cameroon, illegally entered Lithuania, are 2070, while in January they were only 20. The Lithuanian authorities accuse Alkeksandr Lukascenko of retaliation for the sanctions imposed on Belarus and for having given hospitality to Belarusian opponents, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya in the first place. The border between Lithuania and Belarus is a residual structure from the Soviet era and for this reason the Lithuanian authorities have begun to strengthen it with barbed wire and have proclaimed a state of maximum alert along the Belarusian border on 2 July. The Lithuanian-Belarusian border is 680 kilometers long,and the barbed wire was enough for the Lithuanian border guards to cover only 4.5 kilometers. The Estonian government has promised to send its barbed wire stock for another 100 kilometers. The barbed wire used at the border is of the military type and its purchase requires a particular procedure and the process is very long. Now the Lithuanian government is negotiating the purchase of the barbed wire with the governments of Denmark and Slovenia. The European Union has rejected the Lithuanian request for the supply of barbed wire, promising instead 10 million euros as aid for the management of refugees hosted on Lithuanian territory.Meanwhile, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda has signed the law banning illegal immigrants from Belarus from contesting judicial decisions on refusal of the right to asylum and against expulsion. According to the Lithuanian president, the newly passed law is imperfect as regards the protection of the rights and freedoms of immigrants in Lithuania. However, according to the Lithuanian head of state, against the backdrop of the wave of refugees, his country is forced to take such restrictive measures against foreigners.his country is forced to adopt restrictive measures of this kind against foreigners.his country is forced to adopt restrictive measures of this kind against foreigners.