03-08-2021
The state border protection and deterrence regime is being strengthened
Today Agnė Bilotaitė, head of emergency state operations, adopted a decision instructing all institutions ensuring the protection of the state border of the Republic of Lithuania to additionally take all necessary statutory measures to protect the state border of the Republic of Lithuania and measures not creating preconditions for illegal entry into the territory of the Republic of Lithuania. This decision was adopted given that hybrid attack implemented by the Belarusian regime is intensifying and the numbers of illegal migrants increased times after the state-level emergency situation was declared.
“Officials of the State Border Guard Service (SBGS) are competent and experienced in applying tactical measures in such situations. The Lithuanian border must be protected by all legal means from any illegal crossing of the state border, which is used as an instrument of the current hybrid aggression against Lithuania. Those who try to cross the state border intentionally in prohibited places must be considered as a persons who intend to commit a criminal activity - illegal state border crossing.” A. Bilotaitė said.
In order to protect the state border and prevent the entry into the territory of Lithuania of persons who intend to cross the border in unauthorized places current decision oblige persons to use the legal means of border crossing points or for applying for asylum. Such persons must be directed to the nearest operational international border control post or to the diplomatic mission.
Foreigners are being invited to Belarus as a safe territory with no ongoing military conflicts. This means that a foreign national who has come to Belarus for tourism purposes and has received the services for which he has entered that country should leave as legally as he did arrived. However, persons arriving in Belarus are used to organize hybrid aggression at the border with Lithuania.
It should be noted that Belarus, having made decisions to apply visa-free regime with many countries of the world, does not unilaterally implement the agreement on the legal regime of the border, and its border guard institutions contributes to the organization of illegal border crossing to the Republic of Lithuania. In Lithuania, an effective asylum procedures are in place, meaning that those who are seeking reasonably and legitimately ask for asylum can apply for asylum upon arrival to operational international border control post.
Since the beginning of the illegal migration crisis, the SBGS supported by forces from other Lithuanian institutions, as well as officials from the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (FRONTEX) and Estonia, has strengthened the border security with Belarus. In addition, Lithuania has started building a spiral barbed wire fence - a concertina. This year, 3,832 migrants crossed the Lithuanian-Belarusian border illegally.