Lithuania says it has completed a steel wall stretching along the border with Belarus to stop the flow of illegal migrants after tens of thousands, mostly from the Middle East, tried to enter the country and fellow EU-member states Poland and Latvia, from Belarusian territory last year.
Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte said on August 29 that EPSO-G construction, the company involved in the building of the 502-kilometer steel wall topped with barbed wire, had informed the government it had completed the work.
The rest of the Lithuanian-Belarusian border, namely more that a 100-kilometer segment, lies along rivers and lakes.
Lithuania and other European Union states say Belarusian authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka orchestrated the migrant crisis along with his ally, Russian President Vladimir Putin, in retaliation for sanctions imposed on him and his regime for its brutal crackdown on dissent after mass protests over a disputed August 2020 presidential election handed Lukashenka a sixth term in power.
In late June, Poland completed a similar wall along its 186-kilometer border with Belarus.
Meanwhile Finland announced in June plans to start building a wall along its border with Russia to prevent Moscow's possible use of migrants to create "a hybrid influence" on the country.
