VILNIUS, November 9. /TASS/. The new sanctions of the EU against Belarus due to the migration crisis will affect the entire Belarusian aviation sector, Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte told reporters on Tuesday.
Since the beginning of the year, more than 4,000 illegal migrants from Asian and African countries have been detained at the Lithuanian-Belarusian border. This is 50 times more than in the entire 2020. Vilnius believes that the migration crisis was provoked by Minsk, and they call it "a hybrid attack on Lithuania" in response to Vilnius’ support of the Belarusian opposition.
"It concerns air traffic. This (the new sanctions - TASS) concerns not only airlines that are involved in all this, but also enterprises serving the aviation industry on the ground, officials," Simonyte said.
The head of government argued that the European Union was establishing a dialogue with countries whose citizens are trying to illegally enter the EU.
"Discussions with the governments of these countries are needed on the new flow [of migrants], attempts to find new routes with a transfer in Dubai, Istanbul and other cities, in Damascus, with which, unfortunately, the possibilities for dialogue are limited," she said.
On Monday, in a telephone conversation with President the European Commission (EC) Ursula von der Leyen, Simonyte said that the EU should immediately impose sanctions against all those involved in the transfer of illegal migrants - against individuals, travel agencies, airlines, the administration of Belarusian airports, and aircraft maintenance services.