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Lithuania’s Permanent Representative in Geneva, Andrius Krivas, sent letters to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, and IOM Director General Antonio Vitorino, the Foreign Ministry said.
The letters provide information on the situation of illegal migration and ask these organizations to respond in accordance with their mandate.
“The Lithuanian government is convinced that the Belarusian regime is artificially encouraging illegal migration and using it as a political tool to increase pressure on Lithuania, which is harshly critical of large-scale human rights violations in Belarus,” the letters read. .
The Permanent Representative of Lithuania asked the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and IOM to publicly evaluate the policy followed by Belarus and include the discussion of this issue on the organizations’ agendas. This issue was also discussed during Ambassador Kriv’s meeting with the IOM Director General on Monday.
Since the beginning of this year, Lithuanian border officials have detained more than 1,800 people who have illegally crossed the Lithuanian state border from Belarus, while last year the number of detainees was just over 80.
Due to the sharp increase in the flow of migrants, the government has declared a state of emergency.
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