VILNIUS, November 25. / TASS /. The Lithuanian practice of pushing illegal migrants from Asian and African countries out of the border, trying to enter the country from the territory of Belarus, does not comply with international law. Renata Kulesh, a representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), announced this to the Russian-language weekly Express-Nedelya, which is published in Lithuania on Thursday .
“We have repeatedly expressed that because of the turnover of people [illegal migrants] their lives are in danger. This does not meet the norms of international law. It is necessary to avoid actions that pose a threat to the lives of refugees and migrants,” she stressed.
The UN representative is critical of the emergency measures applied by Lithuania in connection with the migration crisis. “There is a risk of violation of the integrity of the system for receiving asylum seekers,” she said. As Kulesh noted, the country must “guarantee conditions of admission [of refugees and migrants] that meet human rights standards.”
Since the beginning of the year, over 4,000 illegal migrants from Asia and Africa have been detained at the Lithuanian-Belarusian border.
This is 50 times more than in the entire 2020. Since August, Lithuanian border guards and law enforcement agencies began to force out illegal migrants trying to cross the border back to Belarus. As a result of such actions, more than 7.3 thousand people were not allowed to enter Lithuania.
Illegal migrants who have found themselves in Lithuania and have applied to the authorities for asylum are kept in isolation in accommodation centers and are deprived of their freedom of movement around the country until the decision is made.
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