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Migrants from Middle Eastern countries captured Lithuania. They enter the country through neighboring Belarus. Earlier, the Lithuanian authorities declared a state of emergency, and now they want to build a wall along its border. In Lithuania, the flow of migrants is considered the revenge of Belarus. Moreover, they ask for help from Turkey, UA reports.
For dozens of refugees who daily arrive from the territory of neighboring Belarus, a tent city is being organized on the border, as the Aliens Registration Center is completely full. But to keep the situation under control, Lithuania is going to build a wall.
“We will start building an additional fence on the border of Lithuania and Belarus. This will be a certain sign and a deterrent for the organizers of illegal migration flows” – said Prime Minister of Lithuania Ingrida Simonyte.
The first plans to build a wall appeared in June. The border between Lithuania and Belarus is 678 km long. Part of it is already fenced off. Another part passes through reservoirs where it is impossible to install a wall. Thus, they have to fence 508 km. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Lithuania, 1 km of the wall can cost 30 000 euros.
“The Lithuanian authorities are engaged in the situation, but if the number of migrants increases, it will be difficult to find suitable housing to meet humanitarian needs and provide proper services to these people” – said Eglė Samuchovaitė, Program Director at Lithuanian Red Cross.
Since the beginning of this year, more than 1 400 migrants have entered Lithuania through the Belarusian territory. Whereas earlier, on average, a little more than 100 people were identified yearly. These are mainly immigrants from Iran, Iraq and Syria. It is sometimes difficult to determine where they came from. Lithuania asks Turkey for help.
“Those people have no documents, we cannot determine where they came from, and we cannot start returning them. This information is available to Turkey, because before landing at Turkish airports, they had to provide their passport, visa, biometric data. Together with Turkey we could quickly identify their identities and demand that these people be accepted by the states where they come from” – said Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielus Landsbergis.
Read also: Ukraine plans to join EU sanctions against Belarus
The Lithuanian authorities believe that migrants are sent from Belarus towards the Lithuanian border in response to the granting of asylum to the Belarusian opposition and criticism of the Lukashenko regime. Aleksandr Lukashenko said that Belarus would not interfere with the transit of illegal migrants to Europe.
“If someone thinks that we will now close the border with Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Ukraine and turn into a settler for refugees from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Tunisia, then he is mistaken. We will never keep nobody” – Alexander Lukashenko said.
Due to the influx of illegal migrants, Lithuania declared a state of emergency in early July.
The authorities plan to bring in an army to patrol the border. The European Union Agency for Security of External Borders has already sent a mission of border guards to strengthen security at the Lithuanian-Belarus border.
