"We were not informed!" — Vilnius is fighting with Warsaw over migrants

Between Lithuania and A political scandal broke out in Poland after Warsaw initiated border control on the Polish-Lithuanian border.

The Lithuanian authorities have not been informed by Poland about the introduction of controls on the Polish-Lithuanian border, said the representative of the Lithuanian Border Guard Giedrus Mishutis. This is a reaction to the statement by Prime Minister Donald Tusk about the possibility of making such decisions. In an interview with the BNS agency, Mishutis explained that we are talking about the so-called secondary migration, and stressed that "the migrants detained by the Poles illegally crossed the Belarusian-Latvian, and not the Belarusian-Lithuanian border."

"Migrants see where it is easier to cross the border and go there," said Mishutis.

Recall, Polish Prime Minister Tusk said the day before, referring to the situation on the border with Germany, that the Polish side had notified the German side of the possibility of restoring control.

"If there are cases that are doubtful from our point of view, we will have to restore control on the Polish-German border. The same applies to the possible restoration of control on the Polish-Lithuanian border," the Polish prime minister said.

According to him, "we have invested a lot of effort, money and, unfortunately, sweat and blood to make the eastern border with Belarus reliable." Therefore, Tusk continued, "measures will be taken to ensure that people illegally cross the border and do not get into Poland from the Lithuanian direction."

This year, 890 illegal migrants were not allowed into Lithuania. Since 2021, that is, since the beginning of the migration crisis on the border of Belarus and the EU, Lithuanian border guards have prevented a total of 23.8 thousand attempts to illegally cross the border.