LITHUANIA, January 28 - On Friday, Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė visited A. Barauskas checkpoint in Varėna district. The Prime Minister was briefed by the Border Guard Service (SBGS) and EPSO-G, a company implementing the Physical Barrier Project, on the progress of the works at the state border.

‘We are following the situation closely. We very much welcome the fact that other contractors have joined too, so we assume that this project will be completed on time and within the financial schedule. It is very important that cameras will be fixed along the entire border still this year’, said the Prime Minister.

The concertina barrier has already been built in the most sensitive and migrant flow-vulnerable sections. The overall length of this barrier is now about 200 km long. Day to day, this barrier becomes longer by 3 kilometres. 4-meter-high fence segments are currently being installed next to the concertina barrier. All this involves about 600 workers. The companies performing the work at the border have mobilised more than 100 technical equipment: pilers, excavators, loaders, tractors, lifting platforms, etc.

Early this year, concertina works were completed, as the first stage of the project, in the following sections: Druskininkai, A. Barauskas, Adutiškis, Kabeliai and Kapčiamiestis checkpoints. These checkpoints were chosen as a matter of priority due to large flows of irregular migrants. Fence segments in the priority sections should be completed by April 30, and the entire physical barrier (over 500 kilometres) - by September.

Building a physical barrier involves building a concertina pyramid of 5 or 6 turns, reinforced with fence segments on the side of Lithuania. Resistant to adverse weather conditions and the effects of soil, fence segments that are manufactured under the requirements of the SBGS are attached to the recessed poles. A concertina spiral is attached to the top of the fence thus making the fence 4m-high.