Lithuania declares emergency due to migration from Belarus

European Union member Lithuania has declared a state of emergency due to an influx of migrants from neighboring Belarus in the last few days

HELSINKI -- Lithuania has declared a state of emergency due to an influx of migrants in the last few days from neighboring Belarus, as tensions between the European Union and Belarus escalate. Lithuania's Interior Minister Agle Bilotaite said late Friday that the decision, proposed by the State Border Guard Service, was necessary not because of an increased threat to the country of 2.8 million people but to put a more robust system into place to handle migrants coming in. “It’s very important to have a legal system and instruments ... to be able to swiftly make decisions in response to arising challenges,” Bilotaite said during a government meeting Friday evening, according to the Baltic News Service. Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko has warned that his country would retaliate against the latest EU sanctions on his regime by loosening border controls for undocumented migrants. The bloc tightened sanctions against Belarus after Lukashenko's government forced a passenger plane to divert and land and arrested a prominent journalist on the flight.