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Lithuanian border security pushed 18 migrants into Belarus in past 24 hours — statements

Three perpetrators were reportedly Iraqi citizens, while citizenship of the rest of the migrants was impossible to determine

VILNIUS, January 14. /TASS/. Lithuanian border security pushed 18 illegal migrants into Belarus in the past 24 hours, the State Border Guard Service at the Ministry of the Interior of Lithuania announced Friday, adding that this is the highest number since the beginning of this year.

"After three days of no registered attempts to cross the border illegally, 18 people attempted that in the past 24 hours - record high number since the beginning of this year," the statement says.

Three perpetrators were reportedly Iraqi citizens, while citizenship of the rest of the migrants was impossible to determine, as migrants often destroy their papers before crossing the border.

In 2021, over 4,000 illegal migrants from Asian and African countries were detained at the Lithuanian-Belarusian border, 50 times more than one year earlier. Most of them were Iraqi citizens - 2,858 people, followed by 203 citizens of Congo.

In August 2021, Lithuanian border security started pushing illegal migrants back to Belarus. These actions prevented several thousand people from crossing the border, redirecting the flow of migrants to Polish and Latvian borders.

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Belarus Lithuania

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