They have detained 171 illegal immigrants on the border with Belarus. All of them introduced themselves as Iraqi citizens or showed documents to that effect
On Wednesday, the Service for Protection of the State Border of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Lithuania has detained the biggest number of 171 illegal immigrants, detained for a day on the border with Belarus, since the beginning of this year. Lithuanian border guard’s spokesman Giedrius Misutis told journalists.
“We have registered the largest number of apprehensions this year, but the increase in the number of illegal immigrants is not critical. There have been days before when a similar number of illegal immigrants – 150-160 people – was detained”, – he said.
All of the people who crossed the Lithuanian border illegally introduced themselves as Iraqi citizens or showed documents showing such.
“For the first time, all the illegals detained during a day are presumed to be citizens of the same country”, – Mishutis said.
Since the beginning of the year, 3,027 illegal immigrants from Asia and Africa have been detained on the Lithuanian-Belarusian border, which is more than 37 times more than in the entire year 2020. In late May, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenka said his country had been a barrier to trafficking drugs and illegal migrants to a neighboring state, but given the political pressure from the West, Minsk may wonder whether it is worth continuing to do so.