There is a boom in illegal immigrants on the border with Belarus

In the first quarter of this year, 90 illegal immigrants illegally crossed the state border, at that time there were five as of the end of April last year, according to data provided by the State Border Guard Service (SBGS) BNS.

Most of these migrants were Iraqi citizens, 59 of whom were detained on the territory of Lithuania. In 2020, none of the Iraqis who entered Lithuania illegally were registered.

According to SBGS representative Giedrius Mišutis, criminals transporting illegal immigrants are constantly looking for new ways to reach the Schengen area.

According to SBGS, their route may be as follows: Iraqi citizens fly directly from Iraq to Minsk, from where they continue by car to the Lithuanian state border. After crossing the state border between border checkpoints and detaining Lithuanian border guards, an asylum application is submitted, although most of the time the purpose of his trip is to other EU countries, ”said G. Mišutis to BNS.

According to SBGS data, although the majority of illegal immigrants are Iraqis, there are also cases where Belarusians themselves choose to enter Lithuania illegally while fleeing their country due to the political situation. In Lithuania, they hope to receive asylum and humanitarian assistance.

This year, until the beginning of last week, 21 Belarusians illegally crossed the state border and entered Lithuania. There were no such cases in the first quarter of last year.

According to G. Mišutis, last year Lithuanian border guards noticed a change in the attitude of Belarusian officials towards preventing illegal immigration.

“The main consequence of this change in cooperation is that the adequate guarantee of the protection of state borders and the slow work of the Belarusian border service in conducting joint investigations of border incidents have become more difficult,” said the representative of the Lithuanian border guards. .

According to him, there are cases where Belarusian officials refuse to meet after Lithuanian border guards recorded border violations and detained offenders.

“Upon receiving the refusal, the Lithuanian side will provide evidence confirming in writing the facts of the border crossing, which the representatives of the border authority of the neighboring country will not recognize and will request additional evidence. After presenting additional indisputable evidence and even after submitting an application to the High Representative for the Border, the facts of the crossing of the state border are not recognized or the facts presented are not reacted, ”said G. Mišutis.

In total, this year, in addition to Iraqis and Belarusians, three illegally entered Tajikistan and Yemen nationals, two from Sri Lanka and one from Turkey and one from Russia were detained in Lithuania.