(Reuters) The European Union “speaks with one voice” in condemning a decision by Belarus to allow illegal migrants to cross into Lithuania in response to EU sanctions, European Council President Charles Michel said on Monday.
The Lithuanian government declared a countrywide emergency on Friday as the flow of mainly Iraqi migrants arriving from Belarus reached around 150 per day, more than had entered annually in any of the preceding three years.
“My European Council colleagues are very clear that … the Belarus authorities are using irregular migration to try and put pressure on the European Union, including Lithuania,” Michel told a joint news conference in Vilnius with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda.
