Because of illegal entry: Lithuania is building a fence on the border with Belarus


Because of illegal entry
Lithuania is building a fence on the border with Belarus

In response to the sanctions imposed on Minsk, the ruler Lukashenko has repeatedly threatened to let refugees from crisis areas through to the states bordering Belarus. Lithuania is particularly hard hit. The Lithuanian government is now responding to the illegally entering people.

Lithuania has begun building a wire fence on the border with Belarus in view of the steep increase in the number of illegal immigrants. According to a border guard spokesman, soldiers are to erect the barrier at the health resort Druskininkai near the border triangle with Belarus and Poland. The length of this section of the border is 30 kilometers, he said, according to the BNS agency in Vilnius.

The Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko has repeatedly threatened the EU to let refugees through from war zones in response to the sanctions imposed on Minsk. Lithuania, which has a border of almost 680 kilometers with Belarus, is particularly hard hit.

According to official information, more than 1,500 people have already been arrested – 37 of them within 24 hours, as the border guard announced on Friday. Most of the refugees come from countries in the Middle East and Africa. Most of them have already applied for asylum in Lithuania. The government in Vilnius therefore wanted to deal with legislative changes on Friday in order to speed up the examination process. The cabinet had previously declared a state of emergency in order to be able to react more easily and quickly. Lithuania’s President Gintanas Naueseda also convened the national security council of the Baltic EU and NATO country on Monday.

The Polish border guards are currently picking up more migrants on the border with Belarus. So far this year there have been 235 refugees, 90 of them since the beginning of July alone, said a spokeswoman for the authority. In all of 2020 there were 114.

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