(13 Jul 2021) Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė, told AP in an interview on Monday that the rate of successful applications among migrants who arrive in Lithuania across the Belarussian border will be very low, if not nearly non-existent.
"Lithuania is not a country that would allow international trafficking of people to happen on its land. And we will do whatever we can to ensure that neither in our country, nor in our partner countries in the European Union people might appear breaking, breaching international standards and international agreements," she said
She also added that the migration crisis might raise the activity of far right parties in Lithuania.
In June, the number of illegal border crossings from Belarus into Lithuania rose six-fold, increasing the pressure on national border control authorities, Frontex (European Border and Coast Guard Agency) said.
The phenomenon has accelerated in July.
More than 1,500 people have crossed into Lithuania from Belarus in the past two months — 20 times more than in all of 2020.
Tensions between the EU and Belarus escalated even more after Belarus diverted a passenger jet on May 23 to arrest an opposition journalist.
Belarus' authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko has said his country will halt cooperation with the 27-nation bloc on stemming migration in retaliation for bruising economic sanctions the EU slapped on Belarus over the passenger jet diversion.
On Friday, Lithuania started building a double barbed wire fence on the Belarus border.
It will run for 550 kilometers (342 miles), covering most of the nearly 680-kilometer (423-mile) border and cost 41 million euros (48 million US dollars), according to Lithuanian authorities.
In addition, Lithuania has set up tent camps to accommodate the growing number of migrants.
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