According to the State Border Guard Service, the border violation was recorded in the Švenčionys district by the SSAT surveillance system during the Virgin Assumption weekend. The four illegal migrants were brought from the interior of Belarus by two Belarusian officials, as confirmed by the foreigners. They escorted the migrants across the border and then fled to the interior of Belarus. Information about the infringement was immediately received by a Border Patrol officer on duty nearby from his colleagues in the monitoring centre at the Švenčionys barrier. The migrants were immediately apprehended as soon as they started moving into Lithuania.
The four adult men did not have identity documents and presented themselves as Afghan citizens. They told the border guards that they had been brought to the Belarusian side by officials from that country. The latter took the irregular migrants to the border and showed them where to cross.
The detained foreigners were in good health and were not in danger, so the border guards did not allow the men to enter Lithuania following the legislation in force and returned them to Belarus shortly afterwards.
Work on the physical barrier continues at this location. The security fence has already been erected, and the gates are being installed here. It will give access to the concertina, which will soon be installed here and will run between the fence and the line of the wall itself.
Obviously, without the help of the Belarusians, the migrants would not be aware that the physical barrier is still being built and that it is easier to cross the border at this particular location than at the one where it has been completed. This information is available to Belarusian officials who monitor the barrier's construction and direct foreigners to cross the border illegally.
Belarusian border guards continue to actively contribute to irregular migration to Lithuania, e.g. by bringing migrants to the border by escorting them to places where there is no physical barrier or were no physical barrier will be built due to natural conditions. They also help migrants break the physical barrier to crossingillegally cross Lithuania.
