The situation on the EU border with Belarus will most likely see no improvement in the number of irregular migrant crossings, the Executive Director of the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) Nina Gregori told Funke media group.
Gregori noted that this will primarily affect Latvia and Lithuania. The latter has registered over 2,500 requests for asylum form refugees from Belarus since the beginning of the summer, which is five times more than usual, Gregori added.
EASO has already dispatched 77 employees to Lithuania to help with the reception and registrations of refugees as well as with the processing of the requests for asylum.
Lithuania, Latvia and Poland have all reported a rise in the number of illegal migrants on the border with Belarus, and accused Minsk of creating a migration crisis. Lithuania, Latvia, and Poland have repeatedly accused Belarus of facilitating the illegal border crossings. Poland declared a state of emergency in the border regions and deployed additional police and army forces to the area.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that his country could no longer hold back the migration to Europe due to a lack of money and manpower caused by EU sanctions. The Belarusian border guard has accused Lithuania, Latvia, and Poland of forcefully pushing migrants across the border back into Belarus. (ANI/Sputnik)
( With inputs from ANI )
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