(AP) European Union officials on Monday pledged millions of euros to help Lithuania tackle a migrant crisis that it blames on the government of neighboring Belarus and its authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko.
Ylva Johansson, the EU commissioner of home affairs, arrived in Lithuania on Sunday, a day on which a record 287 people walked into the EU territory from Belarus — more than three times as many as in all of last year.
“This is a provocation of the Lukashenko regime. We must show that there is no free access to EU territory,” Johansson said.
“Lithuania, the EU, the Schengen states must prevent illegal access to this area. That is why we, the whole EU, support Lithuania to defend our common external border with Belarus,” Johansson told reporters.
