“The neighbouring states have already been informed about the decision according to the established procedure. The decision was made due to the lack of infrastructure for pedestrians at Belarusian border checkpoints such as separate pedestrian lanes, separate workstations for customs and border control officers. At the moment we are not able to provide pedestrians with the necessary level of safety. The lack of facilities constantly creates difficult traffic conditions at those border-crossing points that initially were designed to serve vehicles rather than foot traffic,” the State Border Committee explained.
The committee said that it received several letters of complaint from Belarusian and foreign citizens. Besides, mass media have been critical about the situation. Due to the growing popularity of this border-crossing alternative, the lack of facilities regularly caused foot traffic congestion.
“Taking into account the safety problems and inability to serve the growing number of pedestrians, the Belarusian side has to temporarily suspend the experiment started in 2013 till the border-crossing points are equipped according to all the foot traffic requirements,” the Belarusian State Border Committee explained.
The committee apologised for the temporary inconvenience and asked to consider this information while choosing ways to cross the border.
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