Lithuania intends to strengthen the protection of the border with Belarus with a number of measures in the short and long term.
Representatives of the Public Security Service, as well as employees of the Pagegyai VSAT Brigade, who usually guard a section of the Lithuanian-Russian border, have been sent to reinforce the employees of the Lithuanian State Border Service (VSAT), who guard a section of the border with Belarus. This was announced on Thursday, June 3, by the head of the State Border Protection Service of Lithuania Rustamas Lubaevas.
“We are now implementing a plan to introduce additional measures aimed at protecting our section on the border with Belarus, and we are deploying additional forces and means at the sections where the state border is crossed. We are also considering the possibility of deploying representatives of the EU border forces there, and active negotiations are currently underway with the leadership of the European Agency for the Protection of State Borders and the Coast Guard,” General Lubaevas said.
It is reported that the reason for the strengthening of control at the border was the increased number of illegal migrants from the territory of Belarus.
It is noted that the border service “ has taken other organizational measures to strengthen the security of the border with Belarus.”
According to VSAT, in the five months since the beginning of the year, 189 illegal migrants who tried to get to Lithuania from Belarus, mostly citizens of Iraq, were detained. At the same time, 81 illegal migrants were detained on the Lithuanian-Belarusian border in 2020.
“Now, mostly they are citizens of Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and the Russian Federation, mostly they are people of Chechen origin. Previously, in 2018-2019, the borders were crossed mainly by citizens of the former Soviet Union, for example, from Tajikistan, or citizens from Asia, for example, Vietnam, “ Lubaevas said.
He noted that by the end of 2022, Lithuania plans to install surveillance systems on the entire length of the border with Belarus, since at the moment they operate only on 38% of the total border. This will require 38 million euros.
