Vilnius: The European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen on Friday promised to Lithuania, who experienced a rapidly growing migrant flow despite the border of 679 kilometers with Belarus.
The Lithuanian government expressed an emergency throughout the country on Friday because 150 migrants crossed the border illegally in 24 hours ending Friday morning, more than entered every year in one of the previous three years.
“Here we see indeed patterns, politically motivated patterns.
And the European Commission and the European Union stand by your side in these difficult times”, Von Der Leyen said in Vilnius at a press conference along with the President of the State and Prime Minister.
“One thing is certain: Your worries and your problems in Lithuania are European problems.
I want to strengthen it, we really stand on your side in this difficult time”, he added.
The European Commission can provide Lithuanian access to emergency funds to control the “extraordinary situation” and will send the European Union border and Frontex officers of the coast guard agent to raise patrol, said the Chief Executive of the European Union.
Prime Minister Lithuania said in mid-June, he believed Belarus was behind the surge in illegal immigration recently to Lithuania, following the threat by his president that it would no longer prevent migrants from crossing the Western border.
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said in a speech to parliament on May 26 that the country would no longer prevent migrants from crossing the western border.
“We used to catch migrants here – now, forget it, you will arrest himself”, Lukashenko told the European Union stating that in response to sanctions imposed after the country forced Ryanair aircraft with the Regent to land in Minsk, where he was arrested.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said on Friday he could not reach the authority of Belarus to discuss migration.
The minister said he hoped to travel to Iraq and Turkey to discuss the curbing migration, because he believed the migrants flying to Minsk through direct flights from Baghdad and Istanbul.
“Most of these people need to leave Lithuania and go home because, unfortunately, they will not be able to get political asylum status”, he said at a government meeting broadcast on television.
More than half of the 822 migrants this year came from Iraq, but also from Iran, Syria, Guinea, Turkey and Sri Lanka, according to Lithuanian border guards.
Von der Leyen EU said the flow of illegal migrants from Belarus ‘politically motivated’
