‘Flawed from a human rights perspective’: Lithuania is seeing a massive increase in illegal crossings from Belarus. What’s fueling this crisis? And what’s Lukashenko getting out of it?

Since the spring, hundreds of people from the Middle East and Africa have been entering Lithuania - all of them through Belarus. In fact, illegal border crossings have increased by a factor of 39 since last year. The Lithuanian government has toughened its residency laws, started constructing a new border fence, and accused Belarus of encouraging illegal migration; meanwhile, Alexander Lukashenko has tried to pin the blame on Western sanctions. Several media outlets - including the Lithuanian news sites 15min and LRT, as well as the Belarusian outlets Reform.by and Mediazona Belarus - have published in-depth reporting on the crisis, revealing how migrants get to Lithuania, who's helping them, and how much they pay for it. Meduza summarizes the findings of these investigations here. Original Article: https://meduza.io/en/feature/2021/07/30/flawed-from-a-human-rights-perspective