Lithuania has agreed with Frontex on the deployment of additional forces at the Belarusian border / Article

On Monday, Lithuania agreed with the European Union border guard agency “Frontex” on the deployment of additional forces at the Belarusian border, over which a large number of illegal migrants have recently entered Lithuania.

The flow of illegal migrants across the Belarusian-Lithuanian border continues to be a major problem. According to the data of July 18, since the beginning of the year, more than 2,000 migrants have tried to enter Lithuania illegally across the Belarusian border. That is 26 times more than in the whole of 2020.

In July alone, Lithuanian border guards detained almost 1,500 migrants. More than half of those detained are Iraqi citizens or at least have pretended to be so. Most want to go further through Lithuania to Western European countries.

Fabriz Lezer, Executive Director of the European Union Border Guard Agency Frontex, visited Lithuania on Monday. One of the main goals of his visit was to see with his own eyes the real situation and assess what help Lithuania needs. Currently, the Lithuanian-Belarusian border is guarded by 26 Frontex colleagues together with Lithuanian border guards.

On 10 July, Lithuania asked Frontex to deploy a rapid reaction force, 60 border guards, four interrogation teams with interpreters, 30 cars, two helicopters and two thermal imagers. The request has been heard.

On Monday, Lithuania reached an agreement with the agency on the deployment of additional forces. This was confirmed by the Lithuanian Minister of the Interior Agne Bilotaite. In total, the agency plans to deploy up to 200 people to Lithuania, Latvia and Poland.

“We are already sending border guards and increasing our presence in Lithuania. We are also doing so in a regional context, which includes Latvia’s border with Belarus, and we are also working closely with Poland, as it has a geopolitical context,” said Fabris Léger, Frontex’s chief executive.

“We are facing hybrid threats, with organized flows of illegal migrants here in Lithuania, on the external border of the European Union. This is the first time that Frontex has had to carry out such an operation in this region of the European Union, but together we are united and we will oppose it together. “

Lithuania has also signed a support plan with the European Asylum Support Office (EASO). Migration experts and interpreters could come to Lithuania in the near future to help the specialists of the Migration Department process asylum applications faster, as well as to talk to migrants and discuss the issue of their return to their countries of origin.

In her turn, the European Union Commissioner for the Interior Ilva Jūhansone has promised to allocate 10 to 12 million euros from the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund, which Lithuania could receive already in August.

CONTEXT:

In the summer of 2021 the number of migrants has increased significantly, which is trying to enter the territory of Lithuania from Belarus. Most migrants are refugees from Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. Lithuanian officials believe that the Belarusian authorities does not deliberately obstruct border crossingto punish Lithuania for supporting the Belarusian opposition and imposing sanctions on the Alexander Lukashenko regime. Lithuania describes such action as a hybrid war against the European Union.

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