Lithuania turns back 32 migrants at Belarus border

Lithuanian border guards turned back 32 migrants who attempted to cross illegally from Belarus in the past 24 hours, LRT reported, citing the State Border Guard Service.

Latvian border guards turned back 52 migrants on Friday, while Polish authorities reported no attempts to cross illegally on Thursday.

On Thursday evening, Lithuanian border guards and police officers detained 35 migrants who had entered the country in the Varėna district. By Friday morning, 29 of them had been returned to Belarus.

More than 1,690 migrants have been denied entry to Lithuania so far this year. There were more than 1,600 attempts to enter the country illegally from Belarus last year, compared with 1,002 the year before.

The influx of migrants from Belarus to the EU’s eastern member states began in 2021. Western countries accuse the authorities in Minsk of organising it.