Lithuania Spending $48M to Erect Border Fence With Belarus to Stem Migration

Lithuania began building a $48 million fence along its border with Belarus on Friday to curtail migration from other countries, the Associated Press reported.

The barbed-wire fence will stretch for about 342 miles to block much of the 423-mile Lithuania-Belarus border.

The number of migrants entering the nations has grown sharply, spurring Lithuanian capital Vilnius to declare a state of emergency last week to combat the entry rate. In the last two months, 1,500 migrants entered Lithuania, a number 20 times higher than all crossings in 2020.

For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below.

Relations between Lithuania and Belarus became strained in August 2020 after longtime Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko won re-election in a vote widely believed to be rigged, AP reported.

Lithuania has provided support and protection for multiple Belarusian opposition figures and alleged that Belarus orchestrated border crossings into Lithuania by migrants from Iraq, the Middle East and Africa.

Lukashenko said this week that Belarus wouldn't shutter its border with Lithuania and "become a camp for people fleeing Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya and Tunisia."

"We won't hold anyone, they are coming not to us but to the enlightened, warm and cozy Europe," Lukashenko added mockingly.

The European Union, of which Lithuania is a member, has said it will help the Baltic country of 2.8 million people that has already set up tent camps to accommodate the growing number of migrants.

Tensions between the EU and Belarus have escalated further after Belarus diverted a passenger jet on May 23 to arrest an opposition journalist.

Lukashenko has said his country will halt cooperation with the 27-nation bloc on stemming migration, in retaliation for bruising economic sanctions the EU slapped on Belarus over the passenger jet diversion.