A video published on Tuesday by the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs shows how migrants become the plaything of power politics.

A dozen Belarusian security forces can be seen apparently pushing a group of migrants across the green border into Lithuania.

The men have built themselves up behind the people like a wall, they wear full protective gear with helmets and shields as if they were hooligans.

Thomas Gutschker

Political correspondent for the European Union, NATO and the Benelux countries based in Brussels.

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On the other hand, there are Lithuanian border guards who are filming the scene and for their part are trying to block the way for the strangers.

They talk to her and push forward;

one recognizes young men, children and women with headscarves, there should be a total of 35 people.

An arrow is displayed in the video to mark the state border.

The Belarusian security forces are on the other side of this line, i.e. already on Lithuanian territory.

This cannot be checked using the pictures. There are no fortifications or visible markings at this point, just tall grass and wild bushes - as is the case almost everywhere on the 680-kilometer border between Lithuania and Belarus. For a long time it didn't seem necessary either. Both sides had signed a treaty on joint border security in 2009, and by the summer of last year hardly any violations were found.

But when relations between Minsk and the EU deteriorated rapidly after the falsified presidential election a year ago, cooperation broke off.

When the EU then tightened its sanctions against the regime of Aleksandr Lukashenko again at the end of May, it openly threatened to flood neighboring countries with migrants and drugs.

This is how it happened: Lithuania has already recorded 4117 illegal border crossings this year, after only 74 in the entire previous year.

All asylum applications have so far been rejected

On Wednesday, the EU interior ministers dealt with the case for the first time in a video conference. The government in Vilnius had activated the Union's rapid reaction mechanism for this purpose. She asked the partners for further support, with border protection, with housing the migrants and with their repatriation. So far Lithuania has rejected all 197 asylum applications processed. However, the small country does not have its own diplomatic representation in most of the countries of origin. So far, it has not asked the EU partners to take over people.

Lithuanian diplomats point out, however, that the migrants by no means wanted to stay in their country, but continued to strive north and west. That's why it's not just about solidarity with a member on the eastern border, but also about the neighbors' own interests. "This hybrid type of dispute, as it is used by Belarus, is an attack on all of us in the EU and not just on one country," said Chancellor Merkel on Tuesday after a meeting with the Estonian Prime Minister.

The border protection agency Frontex has now sent a hundred officers with thirty vehicles and two helicopters to the Lithuanian border.

In addition, with diplomatic pressure on Baghdad, the EU Commission succeeded in preventing the Iraqi airline from flying to Minsk since August 5th.

Most of the people who were later apprehended in Lithuania came to Belarus in this way.

The government in Vilnius, in turn, is now demanding that migrants apply for asylum at a border crossing.

These measures are definitely having an impact, as the Lithuanian government's migration commissioner, former Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius, confirmed on Tuesday.

"We now have a kind of break," he said, but it was "not yet sustainable".

State tourism company advertises with visa-free entry

Because Lukashenko has already made the next move. His regime is now advertising indirect flights to Minsk in advertisements. That goes about Dubai and Istanbul; People from a number of African countries and Asia have already entered the country in this way and were then brought to the Lithuanian border. Most of you should be aware that this is the real goal of their trip. You pay princely for it. Belarus sells packages with flights, hotels and insurance. Anyone entering the country also has to deposit 3,000 euros; The travelers only get this money back if they return on the same route. The deal is concealed in two ways.

On the one hand, the state tourism group “Centrkurort” issues tourist visas through a network of Iraqi companies. On the other hand, since the beginning of July people from 73 countries have been allowed to come to Belarus for five days without a visa to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. When the people are in the country, they are smuggled to the border and escorted over by border officials. Migrants who were subsequently interrogated in Lithuania said that their passports had been torn up by the Belarusians and threatened with arrest.

Because the Lithuanian border is now better guarded, Minsk is increasingly switching to the two neighboring countries Poland and Latvia. According to the Polish Interior Ministry, people tried to cross the border illegally in that month alone. The border guards were able to prevent 1,175 migrants, a further 760 people were detained and housed in closed shelters.