Frontex To Send More Officers To Help Lithuania, Latvia Control Border With Belarus

BRUSSELS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 07th July, 2021) The European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) told Sputnik on Tuesday that it will boost the number of officers in Lithuania and Latvia to help patrol the border with Belarus in light of an influx of documented migrants.

On July 1, the agency already deployed 10 officers with patrol cars to the two Baltic countries after their June request for support "due to a significant rise in the number of illegal border crossings from Belarus."

"The officers will support Latvia and Lithuania in border surveillance and other border management functions, including return [of illegal migrants]. Their numbers will gradually be increased," Frontex said.

Earlier this day, the Finnish border guard service said that it is sending two officers and two cars to Latvia and Lithuania each.

Over recent days, the Lithuanian border guards are detaining over a hundred undocumented migrants on the border with Belarus per day, in comparison with a total of 81 people detained last year.

On July 2, country declared an emergency over the influx of illegal migrants from Belarus, mainly of Iraqi origin. On the same day, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that the country will not contain the flow of illegal migrants to the EU, as it does not have enough capacity due to the EU sanctions imposed on Minsk.