Lithuania Starts Pushing Irregular Migrants Back To Belarus - Reports

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 03rd August, 2021) Lithuanian border guards have turned several groups of undocumented migrants around overnight from Belarus who tried to cross into the Baltic nation illegally, the Delfi internet portal reported on Tuesday.

The State Border Guard Service sent the migrants back, as under a new interior ministry decree issued on Monday, it is required to take all necessary legal measures to protect the national border and prevent illegal crossing into Lithuania's territory.

The border guard service spokesman, Rokas Pukinskas, confirmed to the news portal that they had already begun carrying out the decree, noting they were helped by military police units and sniffer dogs.

Lithuania has recently been seeing a sharp rise in the number of migrants attempting to cross the border into the European Union.

Vilnius believes Minsk is using migrants as retaliation for the European Union's decision to impose political and economic sanctions on the country. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, in turn, has consistently said that his country is unable to deal with the migration issue due to Western sanctions.

On July 2, the Baltic country declared an emergency over the worsening situation. Over 4,000 migrants, including citizens from Iraq, the Republic of the Congo, Cameroon, Russia and Iran, have tried to enter Lithuania since the beginning of the year, according to the latest official statistics by the Lithuanian border service.