The European Border and Coast Guard Agency Frontex announced that it is beginning to urgently provide assistance to Lithuania against the background of "growing migration pressure" on the border with Belarus.
They clarified that the Lithuanian authorities sent an official request to intervene in the situation on the evening of July 10.
At the same time, at the beginning of the month, the agency sent specialists and equipment to the republic to provide assistance to the Lithuanian border guards.
According to Frontex executive director Fabrice Ledgerie, the situation on the Lithuanian-Belarusian border “remains alarming,” in connection with which a decision was made to intervene to strengthen the EU's external border.
He specified that additional forces of border guards and patrol cars will be sent to Lithuania, as well as employees who will collect information about the criminal networks involved in the migration process.
In turn, European Commissioner for Internal Affairs Ilva Johansson said that Lithuania needs two helicopters and 30 patrol cars to ensure border control.
According to her, over the past year, the number of illegal migrants arriving in Lithuania through Belarus has grown 22 times compared to 2020 and exceeded 1600 people.
She also accused Minsk that the republic's authorities no longer restrain the migration flow to the EU.
According to the data of the Lithuanian border service, from January 1 to July 12, 2021, 1,676 illegal migrants were detained at the border with Belarus, 60 of them - in the last day, and 1,015 - since the beginning of the month.
Almost half (805) came from Iraq, and there are also large numbers of migrants from Congo (200), Cameroon (121), Guinea (77) and Iran (68).
Let us remind you that Vilnius accuses the authorities of Belarus of aggravating the situation on the border.
In particular, the head of the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry Gabrielus Landsbergis expressed the opinion that in this way Minsk responds to the EU sanctions.
The Belarusian authorities admit that there are problems at the border, but they deny such accusations.
“If they (the collective West and various financial institutions. -
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) stop financing various mutually beneficial projects in Belarus, impose sanctions, even industry-specific ... stricter border security, we will transfer to the needs of ordinary people, ”said the head of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry Vladimir Makei in an interview with RT.
Vladimir Olenchenko, senior researcher at the Center for European Studies at the IMEMO RAS, in a conversation with RT, expressed the opinion that Lithuania could deliberately aggravate the crisis, since the current political leadership of the country intends to benefit from the current situation.
“Earlier, the Belarusian border guards did double work, guarding the border between themselves and Lithuania, they tried to protect Lithuania from the penetration of some foreigners.
Now they have stopped, and the Lithuanian border guards used to parasitize on the Belarusian ones: they hoped that they would guard - now migrants are entering Lithuanian territory, ”he said.
At the same time, the analyst noted that the conflict between the countries is created by Vilnius.
A similar opinion was expressed by the political observer of the InoSMI website Dmitry Babich, who added that now Europe is simply breaking the whole complex of agreements with Belarus.
“Arbitrary sanctions are introduced, the diplomatic missions of Belarus abroad are practically not recognized.
This absurd version is being promoted that Lukashenka is not the president, but the president — a lady named Tikhanovskaya, ”he reminded.
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© Janis Laizans
“First of all, there was no need to throw tantrums and break relations with Belarus, the EU had to ... take a neutral position and help the two parties, which are clearly in Belarus, to find some kind of agreement with each other.
But the EU, just like it was in Ukraine in 2014, clearly took one side, and specifically those people who wanted to overthrow Lukashenka, and practically cut off all contacts, all ties with the official authorities in Minsk, ”the expert emphasized.
Meanwhile, the head of the EU diplomatic service, Josep Borrell, said that the EU could impose new sanctions against the Belarusian side due to the increased migration flow to Lithuania and Poland: “We have already taken a number of restrictive measures and are ready to take new sanctions measures in response to the use of migration as a tool pressure ".
On Monday, July 12, the head of the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry made an appeal to the European Union to introduce the fifth package of sanctions against Belarus.
Earlier, the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the republic, Agne Bilotaite, said that the construction of a barbed wire barrier had begun on the border of the countries, the length of which would be 550 km (with a total length of the border of 678.8 km).
She clarified that the protection will be "double", since in addition to the barbed wire there will be a regular fence.
Against the background of the aggravation of the migration crisis, the growth of illegal immigrants detained on the border with Belarus was also reported in Poland.
“Since the beginning of this year, 238 illegal migrants have been detained on the Polish-Belarusian section of the border, guarded by the Podlaska Border Guard Service, who crossed the green border (not through border checkpoints. -
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) contrary to the law.
Last year, we detained 122 illegal migrants in this area, ”the country's border service reports to TASS.