Strengthening of the border with the EU

How migrants became a problem in MINSK

On Thursday, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko instructed to close "every meter" of the border. His decision was announced two days after Lithuania began to return back to Belarus illegal migrants detained on the Belarusian-Lithuanian border. “From today, not a single foot should set foot on the territory of Belarus from the adjacent side, whether from the south or from the west. <...> It was not in vain that we invested colossal funds in the border troops, in our power structures in general,” the Belarusian president said at a meeting in Minsk dedicated to the situation on the border.

Since August 3, Lithuania has been returning illegal migrants detained at the border to Belarus, including forcibly. “People who deliberately illegally cross the border in prohibited places should be regarded as criminals who intend to commit an illegal act – to illegally cross the border,” said Lithuanian Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite. After this decision by Vilnius, the State Border Committee of Belarus began to report the discovery of migrants expelled from Lithuania, claiming that many of them were in serious condition and had “signs of violence with the use of firearms and bite marks from service dogs.”

Belarusian border guards also reported the death of one of the migrants, an Iraqi. According to the Belarusian authorities, the Lithuanian border guards shot at him, but Bilotite called the report about the death of an illegal immigrant "fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm."