VILNIUS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th September, 2021) Lithuania and the Czech Republic agreed on Tuesday that Vilnius would receive almost 530,000 Euros ($630,000) from Prague to fight illegal migration and to protect the EU external border.
Thus, the Czech Republic has become the first EU member state to provide financial assistance to Lithuania in building a barrier along its border with Belarus in order to stem the excessive influx of migrants.
Lithuanian Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite thanked the Czech government for its solidarity and support.
"We will also be able to use financial assistance for the creation of a physical barrier at the Lithuanian-Belarusian border, which once again shows that the EU member states are interested in installing a physical barrier at the EU external border," Bilotaite said.
The interior minister also expressed the hope that EU legislation would be amended to provide funding for the construction of the barrier as one of the instruments to protect the EU borders.
Recently, Lithuania, Latvia and Poland have reported a growing number of migrants arriving from Belarus. Over 4,100 migrants have been caught on the Lithuanian-Belarusian border since the beginning of the year. This is 50 times more than the whole of 2020. Vilnius blames Minsk for the current migration crisis. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that Minsk would no longer restrain the flow of illegal migrants to the EU due to Western sanctions.
