Lithuania installs barbed wire fence at Belarusian border to prevent illegal migration

As tensions between Europe and Russia escalated, Lithuania announced that it has already constructed 200 kilometres (124 miles) of barbed wire fence at the border with Moscow's ally Belarus to mitigate the over flooding of migrants. The European country has invested an estimated €152 million (INR15.2 crore) on the construction of a 500-kilometre wall on the border and expects that the complete wall will be ready by September 2022. The country also plans to install a barbed wire fence and video surveillance on the border to manage the migrant crisis more effectively. 

"The concertina barrier has already been built in the most sensitive and migrant flow-vulnerable sections. The overall length of this barrier is now about 200 km long," a statement published on the Lithuania government website read on Friday. 

14-foot high barrier gets longer by 1.8 miles day by day

Lithuania—like neighbouring Poland and Latvia -- started putting up the first stretches of its 3.4-meter (11-foot) high steel fence wall that is topped with 0.6 metres of razor wire back in 2021. The aim has been to deter the migrants from the Middle East and Africa that have been crossing the border from Belarus to get entry inside the EU. "It's probably impossible to build a totally impassable obstacle, so I think that this barrier can too be overcome. But that would take a long time, and we would be able to react," Virgilijus Raugalė, the chief border guard in southern Lithuania had reportedly informed.

The previously 14-foot high barrier becomes longer by 1.8 miles day by day as construction work progresses. Lithuania has employed more than 600 workers, and 100 units of heavy machinery to complete the project. Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Shimonyte yesterday visited the Aleksandras Barauskas checkpoint and took stock of the migrant situation from the State Border Guard Service (VSAT). She told the local press that the project would be “completed on time, within budget, and stressed the necessity of installing cameras along the entire border,” ANI reported.

More than 4,000 migrants entered Lithuania from Belarus just in the first half of 2021 as per the Lithuanian government’s data. Over 5,600 migrants have been prevented from entering since then. “The construction of a total of 310 miles of barrier is expected to be concluded in September, while areas of priority should be done by April 30,” said the Lithuania ministry.