Lithuanian border town protests over number of migrants from Belarus

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By Mark Armstrong  with EBU
Lithuanian border town protests over number of migrants from Belarus
Copyright  EBU

The small town of Dieveniskes in a pocket of Lithuania surrounded by Belarus has risen up in protest against the government's plan to house some 500 detained migrants in a disused building 24 metres from a local school.

Dozens of its residents have tried to prevent the construction workers from turning it into a temporary housing facility.

The chief of the Lithuanian police and high ranking government officials arrived on Friday to talk to about a hundred of its residents staging a protest.

The influx of migrants from Belarus continues unabated. 

Ninety-two were detained on Thursday and the authorities are struggling to find quarantine facilities and expand detention centers.

Dieveniskes is situated on a small piece of land protruding into Belarus, which almost surrounds it completely. 

It's connected to the rest of Lithuania by a 2.5km-wide strip of land with a single road.

Many of the town's 600 residents are up in arms, with the local council unanimously backing a resolution against the migrants.