According to a vote count, parliament of Lithuania declared a state of emergency at the country’s border with Belarus and at camps housing migrants who arrived from there on Tuesday. The state of emergency, which will last a month and will begin at midnight local time (2200 GMT) on Tuesday or Wednesday, allows border guards to use “mental coercion” and “proportional physical violence” to prevent migrants from entering Lithuania.
The declaration of Lithuania prohibits all travel to within five kilometres (three miles) of the Belarus border, unless authorised by border guards. Migrants’ mobile phones may be confiscated, and public gatherings near the border and in camps may be prohibited. “The state of emergency is required in order to use… extraordinary measures to remove the serious threat posed to society by the massive influx of foreigners,” according to the motion before parliament, Reuters reported Tuesday.
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