While there has been a decrease in irregular migration across the Belarus border, Lithuania's interior minister says she expects another surge, as Alexander Lukashenko has ordered “warehouses to be cleared” of migrants.
“Information has reached us that Lukashenko has given an instruction ‘to clear the warehouses and Minsk’ of irregular migrants,” Minister Agnė Bilotaitė told reporters on Monday.
Read more: Migration crisis in Baltics and Poland
“This is a clear signal that there will be attempts, in one form or another, in the near future to push irregular migrants into Lithuania, Poland or our neighbour Latvia.”
Lithuania’s Deputy Interior Minister Kęstutis Lančinskas says the ministry became aware of the order by “analysing information in public space”, declining to elaborate.
Bilotaitė also claimed that Belarusian officials were training migrants and organising coordinated attempts to cross into Poland.
“Although we recently had several days when we did not record a single irregular migrant attempting to cross the Lithuanian border, we cannot relax, because we see certain trends, first of all, violent incursions at the Polish border,” Bilotaitė said.
“What makes them different from the previously organised attempts is that they are carried out by irregular migrants who have received some good training from Belarusian officials and are organised with the help of Belarus,” she said.
Moreover, Lithuania's authorities have detained the first two Lithuanian citizens suspected of smuggling migrants abroad.
“These individuals are linked to organised crime,” the minister said. “This is also an indication that our criminal underworld is getting involved in these schemes.”
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