Since the beginning of the year, around ten underground tunnels have been discovered along the Lithuanian-Belarusian border. According to the authorities, these were used or prepared for the illegal crossing of the border by irregular migrants.
This was reported by Rustamas Liubajevas, head of Lithuania’s State Border Guard Service (VSAT). According to him, the tunnels are constructed professionally: they are reinforced with wood, and building them requires considerable time, specialised equipment and organised logistics.
Lithuanian border guards are recording a change in tactics: instead of attempts to overcome barriers above ground, underground passages are increasingly being used. The objects are detected with special equipment that registers ground vibrations. In a number of cases, Polish colleagues with tunnel-detection technology were brought in to assist the search.
Recently, unfinished underground passages were found in the Varėna district. In one instance, when border guards approached, around 20 young men in civilian clothing fled back into Belarusian territory. The tunnels generally start on the Belarusian side and head deeper into Lithuanian territory, but often do not manage to break through to the surface.
Lithuanian and Polish special services do not rule out that specialists from the Middle East with experience in such work may be involved in the construction. At the same time, logistical support — the supply of materials and the organisation of work near the border — is provided by the Belarusian side. Without this, VSAT notes, such facilities would be practically impossible to build.
Discovered tunnels are filled in, and investigations are opened into the facts of illegal border crossing. Lithuanian authorities link what is happening to the ongoing pressure on the EU’s eastern border.