According to the Lithuanian border guard, Belarusian security forces helped a group of refugees illegally cross the border to neighboring EU country Lithuania. To this end, several armed officers are said to have accompanied people to the border fence newly built by Lithuania in the wake of the migration crisis in late summer 2021 and damaged the barrier, as the border guard announced on Facebook today.
A video released by the authorities in Vilnius is intended to document the incident. The recordings were made on the Lithuanian-Belarusian border. There, Belarusian officials cut through the barbed wire and broke down a gate in the fence through which the migrants could enter Lithuanian territory.
investigation initiated
Immediately afterwards, they were picked up by the Lithuanian border guards, while the Belarusian security forces hid in bushes near the fence, as can be seen on the video. The Belarusian officials are said to have left later in a minibus.
Lithuania has launched an investigation into illegally crossing the state border. In September, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Vilnius had already sent a note to the leadership of the authoritarian neighboring country because of “repeated cases of intentional damage” to the fence, which was completed at the end of August.
Dispute between EU and Belarus
Lithuania shares an almost 680-kilometer border with Belarus, which is part of the EU’s external border. In late summer and autumn 2021, thousands of people tried to enter the EU illegally. The European Union accuses the Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko of having brought refugees from crisis regions to the EU’s external border in an organized manner.
Lithuania reacted to this with increased protection of the border and built a border fence almost 550 kilometers long, four meters high and reinforced with barbed wire in a spiral.