Belarus to close border as Lithuania turns away migrants

The president of Belarus on Thursday ordered the country’s security forces to tighten control over the border with Lithuania, which earlier this week started turning away immigrants attempting to cross in from Belarus

KYIV, Ukraine -- The president of Belarus on Thursday ordered the country's security forces to tighten control over the border with Lithuania, which earlier this week started turning away immigrants attempting to cross in from Belarus. Lithuania, a member of the European Union, has faced a surge of mostly Iraqi migrants in the past few months. It says that’s due to retaliation by Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko after the EU put sanctions on his country over diverting a plane to the capital of Minsk and arresting a dissident aboard. The surge of Iraqis and others is emerging as another source of tension between autocratic Belarus and its European neighbors to the west. On Tuesday, Lithuania said it reserved the right to use force to stop such illegal immigration and turned away 180 people attempting to enter the country. Lukashenko on Thursday ordered defense and security agencies to “close every meter of the border" in order not to let immigrants Lithuania turns away back into Belarus.