The EU countries Poland and Lithuania no longer want to be blackmailed by the Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko and are closing their borders. With this they hope to be able to contain the flow of refugees from Belarus.
Poland’s Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak announced that a 2.5 meter high border fence would be erected. “Work will start next week,” said Blaszczak. As early as July, barbed wire was laid over a length of 130 kilometers. Now the fence should follow as a second barrier. Poland also wants to increase its border troops. 900 soldiers are currently deployed on the 418-kilometer border with Belarus.
Lithuania has been working on the construction of a border fence with a total length of 550 kilometers for a month. “We have to have a strong, reliable border with Belarus as soon as possible,” said Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite. The cost of the border installation is estimated at 150 million euros. The EU has pledged 36.7 million euros.
The Belarusian dictator Lukashenko is abusing the refugees as a political weapon. At the end of May, in response to the tightened western sanctions, he announced that he would no longer prevent migrants from continuing to travel to the EU. Since then, Lithuania and Poland in particular have struggled with a massive influx of migrants from the Middle East across the border with Belarus. Austria and Lithuania are now campaigning for new sanctions against Belarus. Foreign Minister Schallenberg and Interior Minister Nehammer were at the border yesterday.
