The Lithuanian Border Service stated that on Tuesday (August 17), a dozen Belarusian officers in riot gear illegally entered Lithuanian territory while pushing a group of Iraqi immigrants across the border. The European Union’s interior ministers met in Brussels late Wednesday to discuss responses to border violations.
In the past few weeks, Lithuania and subsequently Brussels have repeatedly accused Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko of using the refugee crisis to pressure the EU, demanding that the EU revoke the controversial presidential election in August last year and its political opposition. Sanctions imposed on Minsk.
These included deliberately bringing Iraqi migrants to Minsk and then transporting them to the Lithuanian border to seek asylum.
A video of the incident near the village of Dieveniskes, released by Vilnius and forwarded to reporters, showed a group of migrants walking through tall grass towards Lithuanian border guards, with Belarusian officials in riot gear standing behind them.
The video also showed Belarusian officials crossing a ditch, which Lithuanian border guards said marked the country’s land border.
Rokas Pukinskas, spokesman for the border service, said: “After Lithuanian border guards repeatedly informed them that they had violated the border, these officials left the territory a few minutes later.”
However, this does not seem to be the first such incident on the border between Lithuania and Belarus in recent days.
According to the Border GuardLast Thursday evening, another incident occurred in the Šalčininkai district, where officials used fixed video surveillance equipment to capture a Belarusian border guard who returned immediately after entering Lithuanian territory for about one and a half meters.
Lithuanian Interior Minister Agnė Bilotaitė said in another statement on Tuesday: “We immediately responded to the provocation and decided to further improve border protection capabilities.” She added that her country “cannot tolerate such bold provocations”.
She added that information about violations of national borders will be used in pre-trial investigations in Lithuania.
Just last week, the country’s parliament voted to build a fence on the Belarusian border to prevent Iraqis, Afghans and other non-EU immigrants from entering.
Lithuania stated that a total of 4,124 people entered its territory illegally so far this year, mainly in July, although only 14 entered between August 5 and 16, as Lithuania began to block migrants from Belarus.
The Belarusian Border Commission earlier released a video of the incident taken from the side of its border, which did not show officials wearing riot gear.
“The Lithuanian security forces used force to try to push refugees into the territory of the Republic of Belarus,” it said.
More evidence of “democracy” in Lithuanian
This incident was recorded at the site of Lida Border Detachment today.
There are children, including babies, and pregnant women.
The Lithuanian Border Guard deliberately ignored all asylum requests. pic.twitter.com/BrjUE2qZO5
-Belarusian State Border Committee🇧🇾 (@GpkGovBY) August 17, 2021
On the occasion of the incident, the EU’s interior ministers are scheduled to hold a special meeting on Wednesday to discuss further actions on immigration.
After the withdrawal of most American and international forces, Afghanistan has fallen into the hands of the Taliban, and EU leaders are increasingly worried that thousands of migrants from the region will head to Europe.
According to a draft statement, the EU Minister of Interior will announce that the EU stands ready to provide additional border officials and funds to deal with the wave of immigration from Lithuania that is blamed on Belarus.
They will also condemn the unacceptable aggression committed by Belarus by sending immigrants to the Lithuanian border. See the draft statement Reuters, Say.
Last week, on the first anniversary of the election that Western countries believed to be rigged, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada simultaneously imposed a new round of sanctions on Belarus to harm the Lukashenko regime.
According to EU diplomats in Brussels, the idea of additional sanctions is still under discussion, but the general idea is to first assess the impact of previous rounds of punitive measures implemented in Minsk.
The main purpose of EU targeted sanctions is to prevent Western companies from doing business with Belarus, especially individuals and entities related to the Lukashenko regime.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said in an interview with EURACTIV last month that official entities such as airlines and travel agencies are also involved in organized human trafficking through Belarus and will also face EU sanctions.
However, so far, this has not been part of the minister’s formal deliberations.
