MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th July, 2021) Lithuania has already detained more than 1,400 illegal migrants at its border with Belarus this year, which exceeds last year's record by 17 times, Lithuanian media reported on Wednesday.
The Delfi news portal reported, citing the Lithuanian State Border Guard Service, that 53 irregular migrants were detained over the past day alone, while the total number throughout the year has so far reached 1,416. This is already 17 times more than in all of 2020, the report stressed.
All detained individuals will reportedly be isolated until their COVID-19 test results come back.
Lithuania had been complaining about the influx of irregular migrants crossing from Belarus for weeks before declaring a state of emergency on July 2.
The number of people detained during illegal crossings exceeded 1,000 in just the five weeks since June 1, Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte said on Monday. The Lithuanian government blamed the sudden influx on Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who, it said, "weaponized" migration to punish Tallinn for not supporting him during the post-election mass protests last year.
Lukashenko, in turn, said that because of EU sanctions, Belarus was left with "neither the money nor the strength" to curtail illegal migration any longer. The EU imposed four packages of sanctions on Belarus since last October. The latest one was imposed on June 21 in response to the Ryanair flight downing incident in Minsk.
