In August, Undocumented Immigrants Attempted To Cross The Border With Lithuania Four Times As Often

Vilnius has dismissed the head of the State Border Guard Service.

The number of migrants attempting to enter Lithuania illegally from Belarus quadrupled in August—this is the conclusion reached by the "Pozirk" based on an analysis of operational data from the Lithuanian State Border Guard Service (SOGG).

During the first 16 days of August, 152 attempts to cross the border illegally were recorded. By comparison: there were 38 during the same period in July, and 62 in August of last year (a 2.5-fold increase). Lithuania’s share among Belarus’s neighboring EU countries—Latvia and Poland—has also changed: while it accounted for 2.4% of all attempts over the first 16 days of July, that figure rose to 14.9% in August. A year earlier, during the same period, this figure did not exceed 2%.

On August 5, the State Border Guard Service reported the discovery of yet another—the third in two weeks—underground tunnel from the Belarusian side. According to preliminary data, it may have been used to smuggle illegal migrants. The tunnel was found the day before near the village of Latežeris in the Druskininkai municipality using equipment designed to locate underground utilities.

On the evening of August 17, the Lithuanian Public Broadcasting Company reported the resignation of SOGG Director Rustam Lyubaev. The decision was made amid an investigation by local law enforcement: earlier, in late July, the agency had reported the discovery of a tunnel on the border with Belarus but did not mention an attack by migrants on border guards.

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