Lithuania to buy technology detecting tunnels dug for illegal migration

Lithuania will buy technology that helps border guards detect tunnels being dug to facilitate illegal migration, Interior Minister Martynas Katelynas said in comments reported by LRT.

“Last week, we tested technology borrowed from Poland that can detect attempts to dig. It works: it found the one tunnel that was reported, so we will acquire the technology and border guards will be able to use it,” Katelynas told LNK.

He said authorities had recently detected more than a dozen attempts to dig tunnels, but only several had been completed. All the tunnels were destroyed.

“At first, people tried to cross directly, when there was no fence. Then a fence appeared and they tried to climb over it. Other measures followed, and now they are trying to go underneath. Every restriction prompts an attempt to find a way around it,” the minister said.

This week, the State Border Guard Service reported detecting an unfinished underground tunnel near Pertakas village in Lazdijai district by measuring vibrations at the ground surface. After procedural actions were completed, the tunnel was filled in.

In June, border guards and police carried out a similar operation in Varėna district while searching for migrants. A tunnel was found at the border, and two groups of around a dozen migrants each allegedly used it to enter Lithuania.

Another migrant group was deterred in late July after a tunnel being dug was discovered in southern Lithuania. State Border Guard Service commander Rustamas Liubajevas told the 15min news portal that such tunnels had been detected fairly frequently recently, but cases in which migrants managed to enter Lithuania unnoticed were isolated.

Katelynas also said the situation involving irregular secondary migration from Latvia was improving as the neighbouring country devoted more resources and funding to protecting its external border.

“The numbers are currently falling, and I believe that sooner or later we will deal with this problem. The borders of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia with Belarus will be protected,” he said.

During the first six months of this year, the flow of so-called secondary migration from Latvia increased from slightly more than 300 people during the same period last year to more than 1,400 foreigners, according to the BNS news agency.

State Border Guard Service data show that more than 8,000 migrants attempted to enter Latvia this year, were detained and returned to Belarus, or were deterred on the Belarusian side. That was several times more than the number of attempts to enter Lithuania from Belarus.

Since the start of the migration crisis caused by Belarus in 2021, Lithuanian border guards have prevented more than 25,600 foreigners from illegally entering the country.