KALVIAI, Lithuania, July 7 (Reuters) – Lithuania on Wednesday accused Belarus of flying in migrants from abroad to send to the European Union and said it would build a barrier on the border and deploy troops to prevent them crossing illegally into its territory.
Belarus decided to allow migrants to cross into EU member Lithuania in response to sanctions imposed by the bloc after Minsk forced a Ryanair flight to land on its soil and arrested a dissident blogger who was on board.
Hundreds have been making the crossing in recent days, many of them originating in Turkey, Lithuania said. The foreign ministry summoned the head of the Belarus embassy on Wednesday to demand that Minsk end the flow of illegal migrants.
Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte said Belarus had been offering migrants flights to Minsk, citing documents found on at least one migrant who had reached Lithuania.
“There are travel agencies, direct flights that connect Minsk with Baghdad for example, and there are agencies both in Belarus and other countries that operate and attract ‘tourists’ to Minsk,” Simonyte told Reuters in Vilnius.
She said the main airport from where people flew into Belarus was Baghdad, and her foreign minister said people were also coming from Turkey.
The documents, copies of which were sent to Reuters by a Lithuanian government official, include applications from Minsk-based agencies called UmnoTury and Tsentrkurort, dated May 27 and June 7, asking the Belarusian Foreign Ministry for visas for three Iraqi citizens.
The official also sent copies of four boarding passes for a flight with Belarusian national carrier Belavia from Istanbul to Minsk on May 27, found on a migrant.
Turkey’s foreign ministry did not immediately comment.
BARRIER
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on May 26 that his country would no longer prevent migrants from crossing its western border into the EU.
Lithuania is working to organise visits by foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis to Baghdad and Ankara next week to discuss migration.
“A large part of the people (coming into Lithuania from Belarus) arrive there from Turkey, on Turkish airlines. We believe that Turkey knows their identities,” he told reporters in Vilnius.
“In cooperation with Turkey, we can easily determine their identities and demand they are accepted by the states they originate from.”
