(AP) The European Union’s top migration official is urging member countries to help Lithuania beef up surveillance on its border with Belarus and not to give in to political pressure from Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
Lithuania’s border guard service said it detained 171 people caught crossing in from Belarus on Tuesday night, the largest number in a single day this year. It brought the total number of migrants detained so far this year to 3,027.
The border service said the migrants, all from Iraq, were to be placed in one of Lithuania’s already crowded immigration detention centers.
Movements of people across the border have spiked dramatically since the EU imposed sanctions this year on more Belarus government officials.
