Although Lithuania's Interior Ministry has proposed extending the existing state of emergency at the country's border with Belarus, the cabinet decided on Wednesday not to do it.
The Lithuanian government will not ask the parliament to extend the state of emergency on the border with Belarus Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė said on Wednesday.
“We will probably not submit such a proposal,” she told reporters after the cabinet's meeting.
Earlier, the interior minister commented that the state of emergency, introduced in November in response to a migration crisis, should be extended.
“The Interior Ministry has seriously assessed the situation. We see that the threats are not gone, and the basis for the state of emergency remains. Therefore, the Interior Ministry proposes extending the state of emergency,” Lithuanian Interior Minister Agnė Bilotaitė told reporters on Wednesday.
Lithuania declared a state of emergency at its border with Belarus on November 14. It is now in place until January 14.
According to Bilotaitė, there are “a lot of arguments” in favour of extending the state of emergency, including the fact that several thousand migrants are still in Belarus.
In her words, these “migrants are undergoing certain training by the Belarusian regime” to be able to force their way into Poland.
“Another very important argument is that we see new directions, for example, Syria in terms of attempts to enter Belarus via Moscow,” the minister said.
In recent days, Lithuania has not recorded any attempts to cross into its territory from Belarus. But these figures “do not reflect the real situation” as migrants are still trying to enter Latvia and Poland, according to Bilotaitė.
On Tuesday, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda called for lifting the state of emergency, saying that “the migrant problem has been solved for now”.
More than 4,200 irregular migrants crossed into Lithuania from Belarus last year. Lithuania and other Western countries accuse the Minsk regime of orchestrating the migration crisis, calling it “hybrid aggression”.
Newsletter
Every Friday morning.
