Lithuania seeks tougher EU migration curbs to stem crossings from Belarus

FILE PHOTO: Migrants gather near a fence at a temporary detention center in Kazitiskis, Lithuania, August 12, 2021. REUTERS/Janis Laizans/File Photo

VILNIUS (Reuters) - Lithuania, facing a surge of illegal border crossings from Belarus, said it would ask other European Union countries to approve tougher rules on migration at an EU meeting on Wednesday overshadowed by the crisis in Afghanistan.

Lithuania accuses Belarus of deliberately flying Iraqi and other migrants to Minsk and then sending them over the border to claim asylum as retaliation for sanctions imposed by the EU on the former Soviet republic. Belarus blames Lithuania and Poland, which has also been affected along with Latvia.