Lithuania’s State Border Guard Service has reported the first attempt by migrants to cross the border after a month-long pause.
The incident occurred on Friday night in the Čepkeliai Reserve. Border guards detained nine people there. It is noted that there is no continuous border fence in the reserve, but surveillance systems are installed, which detected the attempted border crossing.
Lithuanian border guards said the migrants were prepared for crossing the border in winter conditions: they had warm clothing, suitable footwear, food supplies and mobile phones. The migrants were in good condition, were not cold and made no complaints or requests.
Among those detained was one citizen of Egypt who had valid documents. The others had no documents. Five men and two women identified themselves as citizens of Morocco, while another person said he was a citizen of Algeria. All of them were expelled from Lithuanian territory back to Belarus.
This was the first attempt by migrants to cross the Lithuanian border after a 30-day pause. Prior to this, Lithuanian border guards last turned migrants back on January 20.
It is also noted that an attempt to cross the Polish border was recorded on Wednesday. The pause on the Belarusian-Polish border lasted 29 days.
“It is believed that this relative lull in recent times has been due to harsh winter conditions that make crossing the physical border more difficult, as well as a suspension of actions by Belarusian services to assist illegal migrants. Of course, the strengthening of border control with Belarus in all countries also plays a role, preventing attempts at illegal crossing,” the Lithuanian border service said.