CYIL vol. 13 (2022)

CYIL 13 ȍ2022Ȏ MIGRATION FROM BELARUS TO LITHUANIA, POLAND, LATVIA IN 2021–2022 … shortage of places to accommodate migrants 14 and also the opposition of local people to the accommodation of migrants in their villages and towns. 15 In mid-July, the Lithuanian Parliament (Seimas) adopted amendments to the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens. They were aimed at speeding up the processing of asylum applications and restricted some of the rights of asylum seekers, including free movement. 16 On 2 August 2021 the Minister of Interior passed a decree foreseeing the so-called “pushback” policy, where the Minister instructed “the institutions ensuring and assisting in the protection of the state border of the Republic of Lithuania with the Republic of Belarus, in accordance with the legal acts regulating their activities, in order to protect the essential interests of national security, to ensure that: 1. Persons crossing the external border on land would cross it only through border control points, in border waters – at the places specified in international treaties or agreements of the Republic of Lithuania. 2. Persons intending to cross the state border at places other than those specified in paragraph 1 shall not be admitted to the territory of the country and shall be directed (required to travel) to the nearest operating international border control post. 3. Persons crossing the state border at places other than those specified in paragraph 1 and located in the border section and seeking asylum in the Republic of Lithuania shall not be admitted to the territory of the country and shall be directed (required to travel) to the nearest operating international border control point or Diplomatic mission of the Republic.” 17 The weekend after the adoption of the document and policy, Lithuanian officials said, “the number of migrants crossing into the country dropped to zero, after Lithuania sent reinforcements to the border area and began broadcasting warning messages in Arabic, Kurdish, French, Russian and English on loudspeakers.” 18 Besides this policy, there was diplomatic pressure on Iraq on EU level, and Iraq responded by suspending flights to Minsk, and sending a plane collect migrants form Belarus, which brought back about 130 migrants. 19 On 6 August 2021 the Government of Lithuania approved the building of physical barrier at the border of Lithuania – Belarus and declared it a project of special national importance. 20 14 Thebault (n 9). 15 ARMSTRONG, M. ‘Lithuanian border town protests over number of migrants from Belarus’ Euronews (24 July 2021) Accessed 31 May 2022. 16 ‘Neteisėta migracija į Lietuvą: kas padaryta siekiant suvaldyti krizę’ [Illegal migration to Lithuania: what has been done to manage the crisis’ LRT. (14 September 2021) accessed 29 May 2022. 17 Lietuvos Respublikos vidaus reikalų ministras [The Minister of Interior of the Republic of Lithuania] ‘Dėl masinio užsieniečių antplūdžio pasienio ruožo teritorijose prie Lietuvos Respublikos valstybės sienos su Baltarusijos Respublika valdymo ir valstybės sienos apsaugos sustiprinimo’ [Regarding the management of the mass influx of aliens in the territories of the border section near the state border of the Republic of Lithuania with the Republic of Belarus and the strengthening of the protection of the state border] TAR, 2021, Nr. 16958. 18 Nick Paton Walsh ‘Belarus floods the European Union with migrants, taking a page out of Putin’s playbook’ CNN (Near Poškonys, Lithuania-Belarus border, 13 August 2021) accessed 31 May 2022. 19 Ibid. 20 Illegal migration to Lithuania (n 16).

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