Twelve EU states, including Czechia, demand bloc fund border barriers to keep out migrants

Poland, Lithuania and 10 other EU member states, including the Czech Republic, are demanding that the bloc allocate money to help build border fences to prevent migrants from entering.

The demand came in a letter addressed to the European Commission ahead of Friday’s meeting of EU interior ministers.

This summer, Belarus began granting tourist visas to thousands of migrants from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Africa and encouraging them to cross into Poland, Lithuania, and to a lesser extent Latvia – all EU nations that border Belarus.

Poland and Lithuania have already begun to build barriers in response to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko weaponising “illegal migration” in retaliation for EU sanctions.