US monitoring flow of migrants from Belarus to Lithuania

The U.S. is monitoring the flow of Middle Eastern and African migrants leaving Belarus for Lithuania, Reuters reported on Sunday.

U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent told a Lithuanian news site that they are watching the situation closely and have great concern, comparing this situation to one when Russian migrants traveled to neighboring countries of Finland and Norway in 2015, according to Reuters. 

“That’s something that we call on Belarusian authorities to stop – intentionally pushing migrants from other countries to the Lithuanian border”, Kent told the Lithuanian media outlet. 

This comes as Lithuania, a European Union member, began building a razor-wire barrier on the Belarus border on Friday, accusing Belarus authorities of sending the migrants illegally to their country, Reuters reported.