Belarusian regime's activities with migrants might have been suspended - Lithuania's SBGS

VILNIUS - There are pauses in the movement of illegal migrants from Belarus to the EU every winter for various reasons, but at present, changes in the behavior of the Minsk regime can also be suspected, Lithuania's State Border Guard Service says.

Lithuania has not recorded a single attempt by migrants from Belarus to enter the country illegally over the past ten days,

"Right now, we can suspect that the activities of organizing these migrants, directing them, assisting them, and so on, have now been suspended in a sense," Giedrius Misutis, spokesperson for the SBGS, told BNS.

Migrants were last recorded on the Latvian border with Belarus on December 30 and on the Polish border on January 9, and Misutis says this is not a new trend in itself.

"Throughout January 2024, there were 15 days when there were zeroes in all three countries. And there was a period of eight consecutive days with zeroes in all three countries (...), with three days with zeroes even spilling over into February," Misutis said.

"In January 2025, there were five days when there were zero arrivals in all three countries. This is a shorter period, but still, it is not new," he added, adding that clearer trends in illegal migration from Belarus will become apparent when the weather warms up.

Some political observers speculate that the issue of illegal migration from Belarus to the EU may have been discussed at a meeting in Minsk in December between US President Donald Trump's envoy John Coale and authoritarian Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. After the meeting, the US official reported that Lukashenko had vowed to stop smuggling balloons flying into Lithuania, but illegal migration was not mentioned.