Many European interior ministers met in Vilnius on Friday to discuss the protection of the European Union’s borders at the call of Lithuania. The country suffered this summer a massive wave of migration. More than 4,000 people crossed the border between Belarus and Lithuania. A hybrid attack organized by Alexander Lukashenko for Vilnius who pleads for a reinforcement of the external borders of the European Union.
They are 16 countries of the European Union to wish a better protected external border. How to go about it ? This is what they discussed after traveling 40 kilometers from Vilnius to see what the new barrier built by Lithuania looks like, reports our correspondent Marielle Vitureau.
Four meters high, surmounted by barbed wire and video surveillance: this is the perfect example of what the participants would like. They mentioned in their statement wanting the construction of physical barriers, surveillance infrastructure and an overhaul of the Schengen code.
At the border between Lithuania and Belarus, the flow of migrants dried up this winter. The calm can be deceptive, stressed the head of the border guards. But now, the migratory flow is no longer the only threat at the gates of Lithuania for Agne Bilotaite, Minister of the Interior. ” The geopolitical context has changed, the soldiers are in Ukraine, are in Belarus. This new situation must be taken into account. »
“Refoulements are illegal”, insists the European Commission
For Lithuania, decisions must be taken quickly. But the EU Commissioner’s response to Poland, Lithuania and Latvia intending to build barriers is clear. It is a long standing position of the Commission not to fund walls or barbed wire “.
A welcome reminder, says researcher François Gemenne, but a bit pointless. ” Unfortunately, we know that the voice of the Commission carries little weight on these issues of asylum and migration. It is the European Council that decides and it has already decided to finance the construction, in particular, of a wall on the border with Poland. »
Poland, which has faced the instrumentalization of asylum seekers by Belarus, has thus turned back Syrian asylum seekers, including families. But illegal refoulements have been observed in many countries including Greece and Croatia.
” One never crosses a border illegally when it is to seek asylum, when one’s life is in danger. And the problem is that more and more European states are pushing back to the border those who would like to enter the EU so as not to have to manage these asylum applications themselves. »
Attempts at crossings have decreased significantly in recent weeks at the north-eastern external borders of the EU, but according to charities, at the Lithuanian border alone, nearly 8,200 people have been refused entry into European territory.