Over the past 48 hours, Lithuanian border guards have turned back a record number of XNUMX illegal migrants at the Belarusian border. A border guard helicopter helped them find them.
Giedrius Mišutis, a representative of the State Border Guard Service (VSAT), told Elta that this is a record number of migrants turned back since October 2023 - when 54 people were turned back.
The migrants were divided into groups, the smallest group consisting of 4 people and the largest of 12, some of whom had concertina scissors to cut their hair.
"Of these 48, only 8 entered Lithuania at the place where the Čepkeliai border crossing is located (Varėna district - ELTA), where there is no physical barrier. They were immediately detained. The rest, having approached the physical barrier and seen border guards reacting, as is usually the case, ran back to Belarus and withdrew," Giedrius Mišutis, a representative of the State Border Guard Service (VSAT), told Elta.
The foreigners who entered were men, introduced themselves as Afghan citizens, but did not have documents, did not ask for help from Lithuanian border guards, and were appropriately dressed.
"They said that Belarusian border guards allegedly took away and confiscated documents," said G. Mišutis.
This year, Lithuanian border guards prevented 72 illegal migrants from entering the country illegally from Belarus.
For some time, approximately 20 days, the Lithuanian border services did not record any attempts by illegal migrants to enter Lithuania.
"Events show that there are illegal migrants, they move freely, there are attempts to test how border protection works, whether a high level of border protection is maintained. Yesterday's events showed that there will still be attempts and it is too early to talk about the end of illegal migration," says G. Mišutis.
In 2024, border guards prevented 1002 immigrants from entering Belarus from unauthorized locations.
In 2023, VSAT officers prevented 2643 such foreigners from entering Lithuania.
In 2022, Lithuanian border guards turned back 11 migrants attempting to enter illegally from Belarus.
From August 2021, when VSAT officers were given the right to turn back illegal migrants attempting to cross the border from Belarus at unauthorized locations, until the end of December 2021, 8 persons were denied entry to Lithuania.
In total, since the beginning of the migration crisis caused by Belarus, Lithuanian border guards have prevented 23 immigrants from entering the country illegally.
Ingrida Steniulienė (ELTA)
