Migrants Find New Path to EU as Lithuania Plugs Belarus Border
- Lithuania has started sending some migrants back into Belarus
- EU will hold ministerial-level meeting about issue on Aug. 18
Migrants held at a detention center after crossing the border from Belarus in Vydeniai, Lithuania, on July 29.
Photographer: Paulius Peleckis/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
Days after Lithuania started tightening its border with Belarus, a growing number of migrants are walking into the European Union by crossing the ex-Soviet Republic’s frontier with Poland.
Polish border guards detained 132 people, mostly from Afghanistan, after they unlawfully entered the country from Belarus, the most ever over a two-day period, Katarzyna Zdanowicz, a spokeswoman for the border agency, said on Friday. At least 522 people have crossed the border without proper documentation this year.