Read the video transcript here
Meter-high fence elements and endless rolls of sharp barbed wire: workers erect a bulwark on the Lithuanian border.
The government wants to prevent refugees who are heading west from Belarus from getting any further.
The country had already started construction in September near the health resort Druskininkai near the border triangle with Belarus and Poland.
Virgilijus Raugale Commander of the State Border Guard Service
“The situation has improved significantly at this section of the border. The fact that we are installing the barrier is a deterrent to many. The illegal migrants now choose other sections that have no barrier. «
The EU country is spending 152 million euros on the border fence.
It should be 500 kilometers long and be completed by September 2022.
In total, the border between Lithuania and Belarus is 679 kilometers long and runs partly through lakes and rivers.
Virgilijus Raugale Commander of the State Border Guard Service
“It is probably impossible to build a completely insurmountable obstacle. I do think that this can also be overcome. But that would take a long time and we would be able to react. "
A major problem for the fence construction could be that there are not enough barbed wire and steel available.
In view of the increasing number of refugees, Poland and Latvia also want to erect fences on their borders with Belarus.
More than 4,000 migrants came to Lithuania from Belarus this year, before the country sent almost all of the migrants back to Belarus in August.
Since then, according to the border guards, more than 5,600 migrants have been prevented from entering.
