Riseitauen allows Belarusian leaders to smuggle migrants to I Allegations and demands that new sanctions be imposed on Minsk. “This is not a refugee crisis, but a mixed war against us,” Foreign Minister Gabriel Landsbergis said in an interview with Le Monde. If the immigration situation in Lithuania deteriorates, the EU will have to impose “new and harsher” penalties on Belarus.
The ruler of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, has repeatedly threatened the EU to allow refugees from war zones to pass in response to sanctions imposed on his country. Lithuania, which has a border of nearly 680 kilometers with Belarus, has been hit particularly hard. In the past few weeks, hundreds of immigrants have crossed the border illegally. Therefore, Lithuania has recently tightened its asylum regulations.
Immigrants allegedly recruited abroad
Landsbergis accused Belarusian leaders of getting rich by smuggling migrants into the European Union. Belarusian companies are active in the Middle East and Africa, organizing immigration to the European Union via Belarus. “So one of our neighboring countries is selling tickets for 7,000 or 8,000 euros, and people should illegally use these tickets to enter the EU,” the foreign minister said. This is a “profitable business” for Minsk.
Landsbergis said that in order to smash the “smuggling network”, migrants who entered through Belarus must be returned to their country of origin “as soon as possible”. “This is the only way we can prove that traveling to Europe illegally is not worthwhile and prevent people from traveling to Europe.”
The Lithuanian government is a sharp critic of Lukashenko. In addition, the EU and NATO countries have taken in many activists persecuted in Belarus, including opposition leader Svetlana Tichanovskaya (Svetlana Tichanovskaya).
Despite numerous allegations of fraud, after the general election in August 2020, Lukashenko, who has been in power for nearly three years, was officially announced as the winner. This triggered an unprecedented large-scale protest, but was brutally suppressed by the security forces.
In June, the European Union imposed comprehensive economic sanctions on Belarus. The background was that a Ryanair plane made a forced landing in Minsk. During this period, Roman Protassewitsch, a blogger criticizing the government, was arrested.
