As of: 07/16/2021 4:43 a.m.
Lithuania is registering a sharp increase in illegal border crossings. This is no coincidence for Prime Minister Simonyte – she accuses neighboring Belarus of deliberately sending people across the border.
From Christian Blenker,
ARD studio Stockholm
Vydeniai is actually a sleepy nest in southeast Lithuania. 400 people live here, just a few kilometers from the EU’s external border. But for days there has been unrest among the locals. 150 refugees have crossed the border and found temporary accommodation in the village school. “That surprised us all,” one villager told us. “Those who live near the school are concerned.”
The migrants in the village are coming from Central and West Africa. Some of them understand Russian. The border region is not one of the classic refugee routes. They don’t say why so many are coming from Belarus now, of all times. Just so much that they want to study in the West. “We have nothing to do with migrants from other countries,” asserts one of them. “We are students and we came here because we couldn’t stay in Belarus.”
Lithuania has stepped up its border controls and suspects neighboring Belarus of deliberately letting the refugees across the border.
Image: AP
Easy border crossing
The border between Lithuania and Belarus is almost 680 kilometers long, and migrants simply walk over to unprotected places. According to the Lithuanian authorities, there are now more than 1,700 who have illegally crossed the Belarusian border. In response, a state of emergency was declared and the border was reinforced in many places with barbed wire.
The government in Vilnius suspects that neighboring Belarus is deliberately sending migrants to the EU. “This is a deliberate attack with the aim of provoking political tension in the country and causing logistical problems,” said Lithuania’s Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte in an interview with the ARD studio Stockholm. “Lithuania and the entire EU should be punished for not recognizing the rigged 2020 elections and ruler Alexander Lukashenko as the winner.”
Lithuania has declared a state of emergency and any help for the refugees is welcome, also in the village of Verebiejai.
Image: dpa
Help on site
They have now put up a fence around the village school in Vydeniai. Some refugees have tested positive for the corona virus. The police have requested reinforcements from the neighboring villages and are asking for further assistance. “We also need clothes and toiletries,” said Renatas Vitkauskas, the district’s chief of police. “Now everything is bought at the city administration’s expense, and that is more expensive.” The community chairwoman Gene Ramaskiene checks that everything is going well several times a day. After the excitement of the first few days, many villagers have now started to help the people. “We have to solve a lot of problems. The water supply, for example. For some we also have to get medicines, shoes or other things.”
How long the refugees will stay in Vydeniai is uncertain. With a hasty change in the law, Lithuania now wants to accelerate their asylum procedures and is examining whether they can be sent back to their countries of origin.