The European Commission (EC) could consider suspending the issuance of visas to Belarusian citizens due to the arrival of large numbers of illegal immigrants from the country, EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ilva Johansson said on Monday.
“I am also responsible for visa policy. And I must say that I am ready to take action to suspend the issuance of visas to Belarus [pilsoņiem] in this situation, “said Johansson at a joint extraordinary meeting of the European Parliament’s (EP) Committee on Foreign Affairs and the EP Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs.
“Of course, we would still like to keep in touch with ordinary Belarusians, but I still think something like that could be considered,” Johanson added.
“We must be ready to use all the means at our disposal,” she said.
It has already been reported that more than 1,600 illegal immigrants from Belarus have been detained in Lithuania this year, which is about 20 times more than in the whole of last year.
Lithuanian officials suspect that the Belarussian regime is deliberately facilitating the flow of migrants across the border. Belarus’s authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko, in response to new EU sanctions, said last month that Belarus would no longer protect Europe from illegal immigrants.
Read more:
– .
