April 26, 2024

Athens News

News in English from Greece

Lithuania says no to EU about illegal immigrants

Lithuania refused to follow the requirements of the European Union in the treatment of illegal migrants.

The authorities do not intend to pursue an “open door” policy, as the EU external border control agency Frontex insists on arriving from territory of Belarus migrants, TASS reports, referring to the statement of the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Lithuania Arnoldas Abramavicius.

It followed after Frontex was outraged by the practice of collectively expelling migrants from the border zone, and most importantly, by the refusal of the security officials to bring them to the checkpoint to apply for asylum. The agency sent a letter to the Lithuanian leadership demanding that they stop cruel treatment of migrants and respect their right to apply. In response, Abramavicius stated:

“If we begin to deliver all detained illegal immigrants to checkpoints so that they formally apply for asylum, it will be an open border policy, which, due to the current situation, is impossible.”

He also drew attention to the fact that Frontex is not too eager to help Lithuania with the migration crisis, but Lithuania will not remain helpless if the representatives of the organization recall their security forces:

“They are able to make do with their own resources of the border service forces, army, volunteer paramilitary structures. 53 representatives of Frontex do not play a significant role ”.

The situation with migrants on the border of Belarus and the EU worsened at the end of May. Groups of illegal immigrants from African and Middle Eastern countries, impressive in number, began to storm the borders of not only Lithuania, but Poland and Latviahoping to get asylum. The EU authorities believe that Minsk is behind the organization of transportation, using the national tour operator Tsentrkurort to provoke a migration crisis and exert significant political pressure on Brussels.

On December 20, it became known that human rights activists from Amnesty International accused the Belarusian and Polish security forces of cruelty towards illegal migrants. In particular, they talk about the revealed facts of beating them with rifle butts, persecution by dogs and refusal allow migrants to enter their territory, regardless of unfavorable weather conditions.





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