(Reuters) European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Friday pledged support for Lithuania, which is experiencing a quickly growing flow of migrants though its 679-kilometre border with Belarus.
The Lithuanian government declared a country-wide emergency on Friday as 150 migrants crossed the border illegally in the 24 hours ended Friday morning, more than had entered annually in any of the three preceding years.
“Here we see indeed a pattern, a politically motivated pattern. And European Commission and the European Union stand by your side in these difficult times,” said von der Leyen in Vilnius at a joint press conference with [the] country’s president and the prime minister.
