BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Commission said on Wednesday it would invest more in monitoring the European Union’s borders with Russia and Belarus, accusing them of encouraging the passage of migrants as part of a “hybrid war” tactic “.
According to data shared by the European Commission in a press release, irregular arrivals at the EU-Belarus border increased by around 66% between 2023 and 2024, with a majority of migrants holding a student or visa visa. Russian tourist.
Certain Member States, such as Poland and Finland, will benefit from funding of 170 million euros “to modernize electronic surveillance equipment, improve telecommunications networks, deploy mobile detection equipment and respond to intrusions of drones,” the Commission said in the press release.
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Norway will also benefit from this European fund.
Finland, which shares a 1,340-kilometer border with Russia, accuses Moscow in particular of encouraging migrants from countries such as Syria or Somalia to cross the border, which the Kremlin denies.
Poland, for its part, expressed concern that Belarus offered an unofficial route to Europe for migrants. Belarus rejects these accusations.
Henna Virkkunen, the Commission’s executive vice-president in charge of security, considers the situation at European borders to be “exceptional and very serious”.
“Russia is using migration as a new weapon in its hybrid war against the EU. We must not allow a hostile state to hijack European values, including the right to asylum” , she said in the Commission press release.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday on X that countries benefiting from the European fund were “courageously keeping our borders safe from threats of all kinds from Russia and Belarus.”
(Lili Bayer, French version Etienne Breban, edited by Augustin Turpin)
