Belarus can help Lithuania combat illegal migration across the border, but “not for free”, on Monday, July 19, Alexander Lukashenko.
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“If they need help, we will provide it to them, but no longer for free,” he said in an interview with Sky News Arabia, a Belarusian state news agency, BelTA.
Lithuanian officials believe that the Belarussian regime is deliberately facilitating the flow of migrants across the border. Last week, the Lithuanian Seimas passed a resolution recognizing adult illegal migration as a hybrid aggression, noting that unfriendly countries are organizing illegal cross-border flows of third-country nationals to destabilize the situation in Lithuania.
Earlier, Lukashenko said in connection with the new European Union sanctions that Belarus would no longer protect Europe from illegal immigrants, drug trafficking and smuggling.
As he now said in the interview, there are “criminal groups operating in Lithuania that organize the cross-border movement of illegal migrants”, but the authorities pretend not to see it, but accuse Belarus of the crisis and thus try to hide the truth.
Lukashenko said that Western countries have determined Minsk sanctions in an attempt to “suffocate Belarus”.
According to him, border controls, including the fight against illegal migration, drug and arms smuggling, are costly.
“If you want us to help you in this regard, we do not need to put a noose around our necks,” Lukashenko said.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis, evaluating Lukashenko’s statements, called them blackmail.
“It’s not help, it’s blackmail. We can’t expect anything else from a terrorist regime. The answer is simple – if Minsk does not continue to take migrants, Lithuania will call for new sanctions,” the minister said in a commentary sent to BNS Vītaute Šmaižīte.
According to the data of July 18, since the beginning of the year, 2,096 migrants have tried to enter Lithuania illegally across the Belarusian border – 26 times more than in the whole of 2020. In July alone, Lithuanian border guards detained 1,435 migrants, in June – 473, in May – 77, in April – 70 and in March – eight.
More than half of the 1,098 detainees are Iraqi nationals or have acted as such. There are also 179 migrants from the Congo, 121 from Cameroon, 78 from Guinea, 74 from Iran, 69 from Syria and Afghanistan, 68 from Russia, and others from several other countries. Most have wanted to go further through Lithuania to Western European countries.
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