IeM reports that in January of this year, persons were prevented from illegally crossing the state border in 321 cases, in 2022 – in 5,286 cases, and as of August 11, 2021, persons were prevented from illegally crossing the state border in 4,045 cases.
From November 2022, the number of attempts to cross the state border illegally has increased, that is, in the month of November, persons were prevented from crossing the state border illegally in 429 cases, in the month of December – in 1053 cases.
“An important circumstance to consider is that Poland has completed the construction of a permanent fence along the Polish-Belarusian border, while construction of a permanent fence is already underway on the Lithuanian-Belarusian border,” says IeM. “Consequently, there is a possibility that Belarus may take advantage of the situation that a permanent fence has not been built along the Latvian-Belarusian border, thus increasing the number of persons who illegally cross the Latvian-Belarusian state border.”
The competent institutions of Lithuania and Poland continue to receive information about illegal crossing of the state border from the territory of Belarus, therefore it is essential to ensure a unified coordinated action between countries regarding such illegal crossing of the state border in order to ensure an equivalent border of the countries of the entire region with the protection of Belarus, says the statement of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.
