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As the report by the Seimas ombudsman Augustinas Normantas reveals, foreigners who cross the border are directed directly to Belarus, not to the nearest border checkpoint or diplomatic mission, and the rejections apply even to migrant groups with many kids. If the Belarusian border guards obstruct the expulsion of foreigners, the people are transported elsewhere and expelled to Belarus.
This is not complete news, but officials constantly report that they are assessing the vulnerability of migrants and that they refer to border checkpoints.
The report from the Office of the Ombudsman of Seimas also assesses the living conditions of migrants already in Lithuania at border barriers, Medininkai Border Guard School and municipally run accommodation places. A total of 18 sites were visited. The visits took place from the end of July to mid-September, during which contacts were established with migrants, as well as with border guards or representatives of municipalities and non-governmental organizations.
The Ombudsman notes that the accommodation of the migrants, the provision of food and appropriate clothing and footwear for the climate did not meet basic human rights standards and constituted inhuman or degrading treatment.
In Lithuania, migrants’ freedom was restricted for an average of 40 days, but at the same time material conditions were not guaranteed and, without freedom of movement, migrants themselves could not and could not deal with it. People were staying in tents, hangars, disused buildings, but in some places they did not meet even minimum standards. In some accommodations, migrants, including children, received only a dry ration for about 30 days, people with various illnesses were not examined by doctors, only emergency care was provided, children and their parents lived in garages and tents. campaign in some cases, and the officials were sometimes unknown and vulnerable people, such as homosexuals or migrants from the Yazid minority.
Thus, legislation that says ‘how it should be’ and a reality that shows ‘how it really is’ are incompatible.
Volunteer Soldier Collapsed: Threatening Border Guards to Make His Behavior Known
The Seimas ombudsman’s report presents specific situations observed by the institution’s representatives. For example, on August 6, during the expulsion of migrants, officials used gestures and a dog to prevent a group of migrants, including a woman with a small child, from ordering them to return to Belarus instead of the border checkpoint. . The vulnerability of the migrants was not assessed during this incident.
That same night, officers did not allow a group of 34 people, including 15 children, to enter Lithuania. But since the Belarusian border guards on the other side did not allow the migrants to return, our officials took the entire group to another location and released them to Belarus.
The controller points out that at that time the average daily temperature ranged between 13.1 and 19.7 degrees, and that day the precipitation was set at 19.5 millimeters. Certainly the weather was not suitable for the children to be left outside.
On August 9, a group of foreigners were found in a settlement, and the arriving border guards and military police took the group of migrants and released them to Belarus without informing them how to legally apply for asylum or assess the vulnerability of the people.
The dramatic situation is also revealed in the official report of the military volunteer of August 10 of service at the firebreak in the district of Šalčininkai. It turns out that on August 9, this volunteer was involved in the process of expelling migrants.
“The soldier, upon seeing and hearing the screams of women and children and affected by psycho-emotional states, began to come into conflict with the SBGS officers for behaving inappropriately. [su migrantais], began filming them, threatening to distribute the video on social media. The soldier was contacted by a butler from his company, reassured him and convinced him to hand over his phone to a colleague who deleted all the images, “the report says.
This has not been made public.
As Belarusian officials prevent migrants from returning to the depths of their country, there are situations where people are trapped between the two countries – then freeze, experience inhumane conditions, and lack food, water, clothing, and shoes. .
The children also ate dry rations on the firebreaks for a month.
The document also captures the critically appraised conditions in which some migrants lived. The situation of the people seems to have been worse at the border barriers, since migrants staying there for more than 30 days have been given dry rations that are only myths and are given once a day. Children had to eat the same way. The only exception was the Švenčionys firebreak and the Padvarioniai firebreak of the Vilnius border team, but in the latter the supply of hot food did not start until the end of August.
The dry ration consisted of: 1 can of meat, 1 can of corn, 1 jar of soup, a packet of cookies, 1 stick, 1 packet of breadsticks, 1.5 liters of water, a packet of tea and a packet of sugar.
The children lacked dairy products. Migrants could buy some food at incoming car shops, but only those who had the money. The migrants cannot use bank accounts, so they could not even have asked their relatives for help. People also complained about the lack of clean water.
“Several foreigners interviewed have complained that they and their children experience constant abdominal pain due to the lack of dry rations, but have received medication only a few times,” the report says.
In the migrant accommodation establishments established by the municipalities, people received better food, it was provided three times a day: “In the facilities of the old schools and orphanages, the residents are given food three times a day. For example, residents received a jar of yogurt for breakfast and a package of cookies, for lunch, a hot dish consisting of pasta, chicken fillet, some vegetables (peas, carrots), for dinner, pancakes. Interviewed foreigners and municipal employees stated that vegetables and fruits are rarely delivered to foreigners ”.
People lived cold and dirty
The housing conditions of the migrants varied greatly according to the place of accommodation. For example, in many border guards, people, including children, were housed in tents, hangars, garages, or office spaces.
Most of the tents, including the hangars, were heavily drained, water had collected inside, and the sleeping mattresses were damp. August was very rainy in Lithuania.
For example, that month in Lazdijai and Druskininkai districts there were 19, Varėna – 21, Dūkštas, Šalčininkai – 18, Vilnius – 17, Švenčionys – 15 days of rain.
In August, the average minimum air temperature in Lithuania was 12.4 degrees Celsius, but on some days it was only 5.5 to 3.8 degrees in some places.
As a result, the migrants were very cold: they lived in tents or other premises and were drenched from the rain, they also did not have adequate clothing and footwear, and no institution was committed to centrally organizing the supply of clothing.
Proper hygiene conditions were also important and inadequate. Showers and toilets were lacking, toilets were changed infrequently, and the migrants themselves did not have cleaning products to keep the environment clean. The border guards themselves indicated to the representatives of the Seimas Ombudsman’s Office that 4-5 people are enough to drink hot water in the showers, then they have to wait about an hour for the water to reheat.
Some migrants from the municipalities were housed in disused buildings of former schools or orphanages, but those buildings were often in poor condition: moldy, forged windows, no toilets, bathrooms and showers. For example, the gymnasium of the old Linkmenai school housed 67 people. It is incredible that despite the housing conditions, the people in this gym were kept indoors, that is, only 10 people were released outside for 15 minutes a day.
In essence, the Ombudsman of the Seimas affirms that the conditions of the migrants amounted to detention, but did not meet the minimum standards that must be guaranteed for them.
These conditions could perhaps be justified in some way for a short period of time, but on average the migrants lived in this way for about 40 days.
As a general rule, restrictions on the movement of migrants must be accompanied by medical services. In the case of migrants, in principle, emergency assistance was only guaranteed when it was necessary to call an ambulance. In general, the provision of medical care was severely limited by the shortage of specialists: the lack of doctors and ambulances in the districts.
“On the territory of the Lazdijai district municipality, only two ambulances provided assistance, so the doctors stated that they did not have time to react quickly to all the medical needs of foreigners, but also to the residents of the Lazdijai district,” notes the report.
By the way, the provision of medical assistance was also hampered by the fact that after calling an ambulance and transporting a foreigner to a medical institution, it is necessary to wait for the police, who arrive as long as possible.
“During the inspection, an ambulance was called to the foreigner staying in the premises of the former Kapčiamiestis child-care home, if he needed urgent medical assistance. The doctors arrived at the scene in about 15 minutes, but they had to wait another 15 minutes for the police officers to arrive. The doctors regretted that they had to park the ambulance and that both they and the person who needed emergency medical attention, as well as other people who needed emergency assistance, had to wait longer ”, reads the document signed by the ombudsman of the Seimas.
In non-urgent cases, there were first aid kits in practically all the accommodation places and the medicines for the doctors were provided by municipal employees, volunteers from non-governmental organizations and the elderly. But, for example, if the migrants complained of colds, toothaches and swollen legs, they could hardly get a doctor because it did not force them to go to the hospital, but painkillers were not enough. The migrants included people with severe disabilities: for example, one child had cerebral palsy and another adult foreigner had epilepsy.
By the way, doctors have sometimes reprimanded border guards for calling an ambulance, although officials cannot decide for themselves whether help is really needed in a particular case.
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