Flow of illegal immigrants from Belarus: in case of emergency, a completely different regime would join Lithuania

The numbers are alarming

Minister on the show Delphi Day says the figures are worrying as the number of illegal immigrants from Belarus doubled in five months compared to 2020 as a whole.

“Obviously, we are living alongside an unpredictable terrorist regime and the statements made a week ago that we will receive an unprecedented flow of illegal immigrants – we can say that this is already happening, we are seeing an increase in illegal immigrants and now they have 190 numbers. illegal in five months of migrants coming from Belarus and that number is double in those months than in all of 2020. Why do we see such appearances that officials may be involved? That impression is formed by the fact that traces are hidden, the officials do not cooperate and the head of SBGS can say in detail here, because the officials record such things.

It is clear that the means used to mask the same footprints when those illegal migrants enter Lithuanian territory and it is clearly a major threat to the national security of Lithuania, I want to make it clear that we see these trends, the Ministry of the Interior is compromised and I do. I’m. Also committed that we would manage those flows and do our best, we have planned measures that are designed here and now. Of course, long-term measures are also planned, ”says A. Bilotaitė.

Rustam Liubayev, head of the State Border Guard Service (SBGS), says that there are still a number of obstacles to cooperation with the Belarusian authorities.

“We have noticed the growth trends of illegal migration since the fall of last year, since October. Those numbers rose steadily and peaked in March, April and May. This has already been discussed, and we noticed a very small willingness to cooperate with us on the part of the representatives of the Belarusian State Border Committee. That cooperation has changed substantially since the beginning of the political crisis in the Republic of Belarus. In fact, our fellow border guards are not very receptive to joint requests for investigations, motivated by the fighting situation and the limitations of organizing meetings at the border and launching joint investigations. At this time, we have a cross-border agreement on the border regime, and this agreement establishes the procedure for dealing with and investigating violations of the state border in such a case, ”says R. Liubajev in the program.

Specifically, we have no direct evidence that representatives of the Border Guard Service of the Republic of Belarus are involved in the organization, but we have reason to believe that representatives of other institutions may be involved or at least refrain from detaining groups in the state. . Border and illegal migration could be stopped, ”he said.

When asked from which countries the largest number of citizens enter Lithuania through the Belarusian border, the minister assured that currently four weekly flights are being made to Minsk from Baghdad and Istanbul.

“We currently have a plan that we see, which is the current four weekly flights to Minsk from Baghdad and Istanbul. Imagine that at least six hundred people fly out of these addresses every week and then there are certain organized associations that the officials themselves can be in. involved, those people are directed and move towards the Lithuanian border. We have information about the prices of such trips for those people, the price for a person is approximately fifteen thousand dollars, for a family, thirty-five thousand dollars, but I want to point out that not only we in Lithuania, but also in Poland, similar schemes. Therefore, in this case, we are cooperating very actively with our colleagues in Poland to jointly coordinate this situation, “says the Minister.

Where the situation is more complicated

Meanwhile, the SBGS director identified specific trouble spots where the situation is most difficult.

“Most of the breaches take place on our Gintaras Žagunis firewall, this section is not currently controlled by modern surveillance systems. I mean this is exactly the system that is currently being installed on this firewall. Another problematic place is our firewall Tverečius. This section is also not controlled by surveillance systems and there are quite a few violations there, “says R. Liubajev.

When asked what part of the illegal people is caught and how much escapes, the interviewee said that around ten percent are those who pass the eyes of the border guards and go further into Western Europe.

“We estimate around ten percent of illegal immigrants. We can roughly estimate that both go unnoticed. Most of them are small groups, individuals who are difficult to detect without special surveillance systems,” says R. Liubajev.

“We believe that their target is really Western Europe, that is, economic immigrants pursuing economic goals, their target is certainly not Lithuania,” he added.

When asked by the minister what the essential steps would be now, the politician assured that Lithuania was receiving considerable international reinforcement.

“It just came to our attention then. First of all, the border regime has been strengthened, other institutions have been involved, the public security service, which has activated its capabilities, has been used and is being considered for membership by the Union. In terms of international reinforcement, the European Border Guard Agency will also provide us with assistance, of course, if the situation becomes critical, which would happen if we had thirty illegal immigrants arriving in Lithuania through a firewall a day , then we should activate the border coverage plan.

We have already updated it, if necessary we will activate it, then a completely different mode would be activated. In a word, we are ready, but I would also like to mention that we need to send a very clear message to those illegal people who may receive the news that there is a very good stop here to travel to other European countries, which is convenient, we must leave of course this is not the case. “, – says A. Bilotaitė.