Photo: Lithuanian State Border Guard Service
Illegal migrants are massively detained on the border of Lithuania and Belarus
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European ministers will consider options to improve control of the EU’s borders and also measures of solidarity with Lithuania.
The authorities of the European Union will hold an emergency meeting of the heads of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of 27 countries of the community on August 18 to discuss the migration crisis on the border with Belarus. On Friday, August 6, reports TASS citing a diplomatic source in Brussels.
“The EU Home Affairs Council will hold an emergency meeting on August 18 to discuss the migration situation in Lithuania, as well as around illegal crossings of the EU’s southern border across the Mediterranean,” he said.
It is indicated that the ministers will consider “possible measures to improve control of the borders of the European Union, as well as measures of solidarity with Lithuania,” which means the possibility of neighboring EU countries to receive a part of migrants arriving in Lithuania across the border with Belarus.
The fact that the EU countries and the office of the European Commissioner for Internal Affairs, Ilva Johansson, are discussing the possibility of holding an emergency ministerial meeting by the end of August, first became known on Thursday. Earlier in the day, the European Commission welcomed the decision of the Iraqi airline Iraqi Airways. on the suspension until August 15 of flights to Belarusbelieved in Brussels to be used to transport migrants from the Middle East through Belarus to Lithuania.
Nabila Massrali, a spokeswoman for the EU’s foreign policy, said that the EU is holding consultations at various levels with Iraq in order to get Baghdad to take concrete measures to block the flow of refugees who are trying to enter the EU through Belarus.
In June, in response to the imposition of sanctions by the European Union against Belarus, Minsk announced on the suspension of the implementation of the readmission agreement with the EU, which provides for the obligation of the Belarusian side to accept illegal migrants expelled from the European Union who arrived from the territory of Belarus.
Since the beginning of the year on the Lithuanian-Belarusian border more than 4 thousand illegal immigrants were detained from Asia and Africa. This is more than 40 times more than in the entire 2020. Lithuania and the EU accuse Minsk of conniving at illegal immigration. Accusations are denied in Belarus.
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