In response to provocations in Belarus, Lithuania is strengthening vigilance at the border
Today in Šalčininkai District, at the section administered by Gintaras Žagunis frontier station, Belarusian force structures armed with shields and riot control equipment have forcibly pushed a group of 35 irregular migrants into the Republic of Lithuania and have entered the territory of Lithuania themselves. The officials of the State Border Guard Service of the Republic of Lithuania have recorded all the above-mentioned illegal actions of Belarusian officials in a video.
‘We cannot tolerate this bold provocation of 12 Belarusian officials crossing the border of the Republic of Lithuania today. We have immediately responded to the provocation and have made a decision to further increase the border protection capacity,’ said Minister of the Interior Agnė Bilotaitė in response to today’s incident on the border with Belarus.
The information on the violation of the state border will be used in the pre-trial investigation conducted by Lithuania. The State Border Committee of Belarus has been also informed about the incident.
This is not the first incident of the kind on the Lithuanian-Belarusian border over the recent days.
Minister Bilotaitė has also charged competent statutory services with strengthening vigilance at the border.
The rates of irregular migration sharply peeked after A. Lukashenka’s threats to flood neighbouring states with migrants and drugs during his televised speech in Belarusian Parliament on 26 May 2021. Lithuania already apprehended 4124 irregular migrants in 2021 comparing with 74 in the entire year of 2020. This is 55 times more irregular migration without any objective threat to Iraqis, Africans or citizens of other countries in Belarus.