Lithuania calls on EU to impose sanctions on Belarus

Follow up - INA

 The Lithuanian government,called on Tuesday, the European Union to impose sanctions on Belarus, while Austria supported this request.
Reuters quoted Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis as saying that Lithuania had proposed that the European Union impose sanctions on Belarusians and companies that it says help migrants cross into EU member states.

Lithuania and EU neighbors Poland and Latvia have reported an increase in migrants, many of them from Iraq and Afghanistan, trying to cross their borders from Belarus.

"We must send a very clear signal not only to Belarus, but to every dictator who might use such a tool against the European Union or any of its members, that he is not only failing, but also taking a hit," Landsbergis added. 

He added that his government "has submitted to the European Union's External Action Service a list of Belarusian citizens and companies that it considers responsible for the increase in the number of immigrants."

Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg supported this, saying that "those responsible must face severe penalties."

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said he would not stop migrants after the European Union imposed sanctions during last year's presidential election.

The Lithuanian government announced on Monday that it will finish building a 508-kilometre (315-mile) razor-wire fence on its border with Belarus by September 2022, at a cost of 152 million euros.

Officials from Poland and Latvia later called for similar walls to be built along their border with the former Soviet republic.