Opinions & Interviews

The head of the Belarusian delegation noted that the Belarusian border represents part of the external border between several international organizations and unions. Anatoly Lappo also emphasized that criminal risks at the border are on the rise. All of them are related to transboundary unlawful activities, which are getting better and better organized.

The head of the Belarusian border service agency also mentioned the fruitful nature of cooperation with Ukrainian colleagues. Due to the importance of promoting contacts and interaction between border services of not only European countries but all countries of the world the Belarusian delegation drew attention of the forum participants to the practical value of the international border conference, which had been held on a regular basis till 2013. Anatoly Lappo invited the forum participants to consider the possibility of reviving the conference in a full-value format.

The official said that Belarus will continue ensuring border security at the regional level and will support any initiatives meant to advance international border cooperation taking into account national interests. “The Belarusian side views illegal migration as a danger of a hybrid nature. All the bodies of the border service agency work to counteract illegal migration and other kinds of transboundary unlawful activities in tight cooperation with the border service agencies of neighboring countries. For the sake of maintaining stability at the border the Belarusian border service pays close attention to ways of guarding the border using various forces and units. Laws on the state border, on the border service agency get amended as well as laws on administrative violations and criminal violations, regulatory acts on the border line and the depth of the border line,” said Anatoly Lappo.

The conference in Lviv was organized by the State Border Committee of Belarus and the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in association with the International Organization for Migration. Chiefs of the border services agencies from Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Estonia, Slovakia, Moldova, Turkey, and Hungary shared their experience of integrated management and security of joint borders. Representatives of international organizations specializing in managing borders and counteracting irregular migration contributed, too. Those are the International Organization for Migration, Frontex, the EU Border Assistance Mission to Moldova and Ukraine (EUBAM) and other agencies.