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Due to military conflicts and persecution in countries like Syria, Iraq and Eritrea, in 2015, Europe faced huge flows of refugees. As a result, a mechanism has been established in the European Union (EU) to distribute them among countries.
At that time, Lithuania promised to accept 1,105 refugees in the EU. Subsequently, this quota was slightly reduced to 1,077 asylum seekers. Many of them had to be transferred to our state in late October of last year, but there was not enough time.
According to the Interior Ministry (MIA), in more than four years, less than half of the planned number (493 asylum seekers) was transferred to Lithuania from the EU and third countries. However, only a little more than half of these remained, while the others went to seek refuge elsewhere.
AFP / Scanpix photo / Asylum seekers
To meet its commitments, Lithuania has requested a delay in the deadline for the reception of refugees by the end of 2022. The European Commission (EC) agreed to delay the deadline, but has only given time until the beginning of the year, says the Interior Ministry .
The number of applications is growing, but residence permits are not
In less than a decade, Lithuania has received a total of 4,524 asylum applications, according to data from the Migration Department. Of these, approximately a third of applicants received refugee or subsidiary protection status. Mainly Syrian, Russian and Afghan citizens.
AFP / Scanpix photo / Syrian refugees
On the one hand, last year, when almost 650 asylum applications were registered in Lithuania, it could be called historical. This number is the highest since 1997, when the asylum application system was established in Lithuania.
However, the increasing number of applications in no way indicates that the number of people who have been granted a residence permit increases each year. In comparison, just under 100 asylum seekers received a residence permit last year, and in 2017, three times as many.
Loreta Tumalavičienė, a senior specialist in the Migration Department, explains that Lithuania has become better known among refugees, but often only because of the possibility of using it as a transit country.
“The reasons for asylum applications are individual, therefore, each application must be examined individually. The most popular reasons: threat of persecution by religion, nationality, membership of a certain social group, political beliefs, acts of war in the country of origin, personal conflicts.
“These motives have also prevailed in previous years, but recently a large part of asylum seekers cover other real goals of going to the EU with these motives, which means that most asylum claims are unsatisfactory,” she says. .
A direction that has not changed in a decade – Russia (Chechnya)
These agreements with the Community and the corresponding quotas are only one side of the picture, since it is not only refugees from the Middle East or East Africa who come to Europe.
Even before the so-called refugee crisis hit Europe, asylum claims from North and Central Asia were constantly reaching Lithuania. Among them are the close neighbors of Russia and Ukraine and beyond: Afghanistan, Tajikistan and others.
In 10 years, over 900 asylum applications have come from Russia, of which almost two-thirds have been granted.
“In general, the human rights situation in Russia is quite bad, so the number of asylum applications is not surprising,” explains political scientist Vytis Jurkonis. He says the range of people persecuted in the country is currently expanding.
“In terms of repression, the first major wave was after the so-called Bolotnaya case, later after the occupation of Crimea, and more recently the Kremlin has attacked not only political opponents but also a wide range of citizens, from witnesses to Jehovah, youth groups to journalists, “he said. political scientist.
A survey by Proekt of Russian journalists a couple of years ago shows that the scale of emigration from Russia is only increasing. The political scientist believes that after the so-called amendments to the Constitution, another wave can be observed, only that it will possibly be suppressed by the restrictions of the pandemic.
Photo by Rokas Lukoševičius / 15min / Vytis Jurkonis
However, he emphasizes that the figures seen in Lithuania are very small compared to Germany, the United States, Israel and Spain. Because the Baltic states are certainly not the most popular destination for those who want to escape from Russia.
You don’t just have to look at the numbers
In general, V. Jurkonis encourages looking at the numbers in a broader context, because today the issue of migration and refugees is generally distorted or falls on the battlefield of politicians “and becomes an almost not toxic”. While there have been and continue to be interesting initiatives, he says.
The Migration Department notes that the refugees from Russia are mainly residents of Chechnya, the republic of the Russian Federation in the Caucasus. As many of them are fleeing the country due to economic difficulties, in this case Lithuania cannot issue a residence permit.
V. Jurkonis says that the situation in Chechnya is very complicated. There, migration began in the 1990s after both wars and continues to this day. However, people often do not fully understand what an asylum application is and see Lithuania as a transit country.
“It is also a problem that there are fewer and fewer independent sources in Chechnya to assess the real situation. The memorial branch of the human rights organization in Chechnya has been closed and its boss, Oyub Titiev, has been imprisoned for several years, leaving units of independent journalists.
So the situation is very complicated: who can assess the situation of a particular person? Are you fleeing for security or financial reasons, or are you trying to reach your relatives scattered across Europe after the wars? ” V. Jurkonis asks questions and adds that Lithuania is again not the most desirable country.
AFP / Scanpix photo / Demonstration in Chechnya
The political scientist points out that Chechens are not necessarily safe after leaving and receiving asylum in other countries.
This is demonstrated by the recent murder of the so-called “Vienna Hook” in Austria. A Chechen dissident who sought political asylum in the country was killed there. Another event is the murder of former Chechen leader Zelimchan Changoshvili, which has caused concern for Germany and special services. Russian special services are believed to be involved in the murder. The problem is, therefore, complex.
So the situation is very complicated: who can assess the situation of a particular person?
According to V. Jurkonis, the situation of the Chechen population should be resolved at the international level.
“The main task of the international community is not to be indifferent to the human rights agenda and to raise this issue specifically in all possible formats, and not to determine how this will affect our bilateral or pragmatic relations with Russia,” he said.
Currently, most requests come from Tajikistan
Another country that increasingly receives asylum applications in Lithuania is Tajikistan, located in Central Asia. Until 2014, there were up to 5 Tajik applications to live in Lithuania per year, but last year their number increased to 217.
What happened in 2015? According to Firuz Barotov, a Tajik citizen, journalist and media expert who is now conducting an investigation in the US, it was in that year that fundamental changes occurred in the country, forcing the population to leave their homeland for reasons of security.
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