Lithuania legalizes the deportation of migrants at the border with Belarus

The Lithuanian parliament has passed a controversial law legalizing the deportation of migrants who cross the border illegally. This formalizes a practice that has been in use since the summer of 2021 on the border between the Baltic EU and NATO country and authoritarian Belarus.

In the Seimas People’s Assembly in Vilnius, 86 deputies on Tuesday voted in favor of corresponding changes to the “Law on State Borders and Their Protection”, eight opposed and 20 abstained.

Illegal frontier workers can now be prevented from entering the country and returned in the event of a state-level emergency and the state of emergency resulting from a massive influx of foreigners. This should be possible in the border areas and up to five kilometers inland. The regulation is expected to enter into force on May 3. President Gitanas Nauseda must first approve it.

Criticism from Amnesty International

Human rights groups have sharply criticized the rules that legitimize actions that violate international law. Amnesty International accused Lithuania of using it to legislate so-called “pushbacks” at the border and to allow a procedure that the Council of Europe had classified as torture.

The Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatovic, had also called on Lithuania to fulfill its international obligations towards asylum seekers. She warned in advance of the adoption of the bill. The Lithuanian Center for Human Rights called on Nauseda to veto it.

The Interior Ministry in Vilnius responded that the legislative changes would make a clear distinction between natural migration and migration that is instrumentalized by Belarus. They are necessary to protect Lithuania’s national security interests. The rejection turned out to be an effective tool.

Lithuania has a border with Belarus that is almost 680 kilometers long and is also part of the external border of the EU. In the late summer and autumn of 2021, thousands of people tried to enter the EU illegally. The EU accuses Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko of bringing migrants from crisis areas to the EU’s external border. The government in Vilnius responded with increased protection of the border and the construction of a border fence. The Lithuanian Border Guard has been rejecting the migrants since August 2021 and has since prevented more than 20,000 people from entering Belarus illegally. (sda/dpa)