MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th July, 2021) The European Union is ready to promptly provide all the necessary support to Lithuania amid the growing crisis of illegal migration from Belarus, an EU spokesperson told Sputnik on Wednesday, adding that the bloc strongly opposed "attempts to instrumentalize people for political purposes."
The spokesperson noted that this year more than 1,200 illegal migrants, a quarter of them minors and largely from Iraq, crossed the Lithuanian-Belarusian border. For its part, the Lithuanian government introduced a state of emergency over the influx of illegal migrants from Belarus on July 2.
The country's Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte blamed the increase in illegal crossings on Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who she said sought to avenge the lack of support from Tallinn during post-election unrest in Belarus.
"The EU stands ready to support Lithuania. Frontex and EASO have already started working on the ground. We can rapidly deploy further operational and financial assistance as required," the spokesperson said.
For his part, Lukashenko maintains that Minsk is unable to handle the issue of illegal migration to the EU nations as it has no means for that due to the sanctions, which were imposed on Belarus by Brussels in four packages beginning last October, the latest concerning the Ryanair landing incident in the Belarusian capital.
