The European Commission has defended policies enacted by Latvia and Lithuania to stem migration at their shared borders with Belarus — despite widespread criticism that they are trampling on asylum rights.
"Those two countries are doing their best to protect the EU border," Monique Pariat, a senior EU commission official told MEPs in the civil liberties committee on Monday (4 September).
"Latvia and Lithuania have faced unprecedented illegal border crossings since 2021," she added...
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Nikolaj joined EUobserver in 2012 and covers home affairs. He is originally from Denmark, but spent much of his life in France and in Belgium. He was awarded the King Baudouin Foundation grant for investigative journalism in 2010.