The European Border and Coast Guard Agency, Frontex, is increasing its support to the Baltic EU member state Lithuania as it secures its border with neighbouring Belarus. Currently, around ten Frontex officers with surveillance vehicles are operating at the border. From next week onward, the number of Frontex agents will be doubled.
This deployment is due to the explosive increase of migrants crossing the border from Belarus. The Lithuanian authorities accuse Belarus of deliberately allowing the migrants to cross the border. Belarus has not responded to this allegation.
Many have seen the border tension as an attempt by Minsk to respond to the sanctions imposed on Belarus by the European Union for repression of the population.
Lithuania has declared a state of emergency due to an influx of migrants in the last few days from neighbouring Belarus, as tensions between the European Union and Belarus escalate. This week the authorities started to place barbed wire along parts of the 680 km border with Belarus.
