VILNIUS
- Belarusian border guards are
bracing for a flood of Lithuaniabound
illegal immigrants across
their western border after the
Baltic nations join the Schengen
visa zone early next year.
The National Border Force
Committee of Belarus said that
once the Baltics join the Schengen
space, they will become a prime
location for non-EU citizens to
cross borders and continue onward
to other European countries in the
Schengen area, the Interfax news
agency reported Aug. 16.
"That's the Belarusians' fear.
They are responsible for guarding
their border and making sure they
they prevent illegals from entering
or exiting. We've been working for
years with them to secure the border,"
Lithuanian State Border
Guard Services press representative
Rokis Puskinskas said.
Lithuania hopes to join the
Schengen area on Jan. 1, after
which land border controls will be
lifted. Controls on air borders will
be removed on March 1. However,
the final decision on expanding the
Schengen area is subject to a vote
by European Union Ministers of
Justice and Home Affairs this
November.
Lithuanian Foreign Ministry
spokeswoman Davia Rimasauskatie
said Belarusian authorities
had expressed no fears to
Lithuania about the security of the
border in the past.
"The State Border Guard
Services of Lithuania constantly
and actively cooperate and solve
border problems," she said. "A fine
example of this is the latest
Lithuanian-Belarusian meeting of
the Heads of Border Guard
Services in Brest on July 20 this
year, during which - among other
issues - the preparation for the
upcoming musical festival
"Be2gether" at the Lithuanian-
Belarusian border was discussed,
and a joint Lithuanian-Belarusian
operation of the Border Guard
Services [for the event] was
planned."
The EU has allocated 524 million
litas (152 million euros) for
Schengen preparations and another
94 million litas has come from
Lithuania's own state coffers.
In recent years the number of
people detained at the border of
Belarus for trying to cross illegally
has fallen. It dropped from 501
in 1995 to 154 in 2006. There were
489 violators detained at the border
with Russia in 1995 and 92 in
2006.
