The EU is facing a serious security threat and will witness how Belarus uses illegal migration as a weapon, said a spokesman for the German press agency on Friday. The aim now is to raise awareness of the situation and take concerted measures to ensure the security of the border.
In addition to the interior ministers of the EU states, representatives of the EU border protection agency Frontex and the European police office Europol will also take part in the meeting organized by video conference.
At the almost 680 kilometer long border between Lithuania and Belarus, more than 2000 illegal border crossings by people from countries such as Iraq or African states were registered last year, after only 81 in the entire previous year.
According to the EU, the increase in the numbers was deliberately brought about by the government of the neighboring country. In the past, Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko had openly threatened to let people from countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan or Syria pass through as a reaction to the EU sanctions imposed on his country.
With the punitive measures, the EU has reacted to the repression of civil society and the democratic opposition in the ex-Soviet republic of Belarus. This also includes the illegal arrest of the blogger Roman Protassewitsch, who is critical of the government, from an EU perspective. Authorities in Belarus had forced a passenger plane en route from Athens to Vilnius in Lithuania to a stopover in Minsk to catch the young man.
In Germany, too, there is now concern about the developments – mainly because it is feared that many of the people arriving in Lithuania might try to get further west.