Protests against migrants are specially organized / Article

Not only political interest groups, but also people involved in smuggling are taking part in protests against the accommodation of illegal migrants in Lithuanian municipalities on the border with Belarus. This is stated by Laurīns Kasčūns, Chairman of the National Security and Defense Committee of the Lithuanian Parliament.

According to him, the groups involved in smuggling are not interested in the borders being strengthened and police control in the vicinity.

Lithuanian Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite also said earlier that the protests look specially organized.

One of the loudest protests this week took place in the Šalčininkai district, where people opposed plans to set up a tent town on the territory of a closed landfill in Rūdninkai to accommodate 1,500 migrants.

More than 100 protesters blocked the way to the landfill, later some of them stormed the landfill, set fire to the tires and resisted the police, who, after repeated reprimands, had to use force to disperse them.

Meanwhile, the flow of migrants to Lithuania continues, with the largest number of migrants detained so far last day – 171 people who crossed the state border with Belarus without the necessary documents. All detainees have presented documents to Iraqi citizens or claimed to have come from that country.

CONTEXT:

In the summer of 2021 the number of migrants has increased significantly, which is trying to enter the territory of Lithuania from Belarus. Most migrants are refugees from Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. Lithuanian officials believe that the Belarusian authorities deliberately does not constitute an obstacle to the crossing of the borderto punish Lithuania for supporting the Belarusian opposition and imposing sanctions on the Alexander Lukashenko regime. Lithuania describes such action as the spread of a hybrid war against the European Union.

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