Migrant tunnels in Lithuania direct suspicion towards Minsk

Migrants are taking a new route to enter the Baltic country Lithuania : underground tunnels. These could be yet another attempt by Belarus to foster political instability, experts say.

The country's border guards say they have found 12 such tunnels since the beginning of the year near the Belarusian border, with a length of up to 25 meters on the Lithuanian side. They are expecting more to emerge.

Lithuania's border with Belarus is about 700 kilometers long, around 550 kilometers of which are fenced.

"We have a ground seismic system, which can detect easily when there's a high level of vibrations over a long period of time," General Rustamas Liubajevas, the commander of Lithuania's State Border Guard Service, explained to DW.

"We then wait [outside a tunnel] for the final stage of the digging and when the migrants come out, we apprehend them," he said, adding that up to 40 migrants exiting such tunnels had been arrested.

Lithuania's prosecutor's office confirmed to DW that a pre-trial investigation was under way concerning approximately 20 people suspected of illegally digging a tunnel. Possible charges also include people smuggling. Due to the investigation, no media visits are currently authorized at the sites.

Liubajevas is surprised migrants would attempt a subterranean crossing.

"It takes a lot of effort to dig a tunnel and the migrants are arrested almost immediately — at most, one small group gets through," he said.