As the migration crisis on the Lithuanian-Belarusian border intensifies, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabriel Landsberg warned potential migrants from the Middle East on Facebook on Monday that they were being fed empty promises to get deeper into Europe through Lithuania, but could become accomplices in the crime.
In an entry in Arabic, Kurdish and English, he said that almost none of the migrants who had recently arrived in Minsk by plane from the Middle East, hoping to travel to Western European countries via Lithuania, would be able to obtain political refugee status.
“You want to trick you into cheating with your credulity or ignorance. You are promised that you will end up in the European Union for huge sums of money – we know you are paying thousands of euros for it. You are told that you will be able to work and live here, and promises to make sure you cross the border, “the minister wrote.
“Fraudsters who work closely with criminals and Belarusian dictator Lukashenko will take you to the European Union border at night. They will release you in the woods and say – go there, no one is guarding there, there is Europe. Here you will be detained by border guards and tent camp. that you have become an accomplice in a cunning crime, unfortunately almost none of you will receive political refugee status, “explained Landsbergis.
He reminded that Lithuania is currently looking for ways to send migrants accommodated in tent camps back to their country of origin.
“And you will return – only without the money paid. You will not be further in Europe. Even if you run away, either our police or those of our neighbors will take you back, because it is our duty – the host country is responsible for the people who arrived,” the minister warned. “Europe can only be reached legally; Don’t believe the fraudsters, don’t go to Europe illegally, because you will have to go back anyway. They lie to you. Don’t become complicit in the crime. “
Lithuanian officials believe that the Belarussian regime is deliberately facilitating the flow of migrants across the border. Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, in response to new EU sanctions, recently announced that Belarus would no longer protect Europe from illegal immigrants, drug trafficking and smuggling.
According to the data of July 18, since the beginning of the year, 2,096 migrants have tried to enter Lithuania illegally across the Belarusian border – 26 times more than in the whole of 2020. In July alone, Lithuanian border guards detained 1,435 migrants, in June – 473, in May – 77, in April – 70 and in March – eight.
More than half of the 1,098 detainees are Iraqi nationals or have acted as such. There are also 179 migrants from the Congo, 121 from Cameroon, 78 from Guinea, 74 from Iran, 69 from Syria and Afghanistan, 68 from Russia, and others from several other countries. Most have wanted to go further through Lithuania to Western European countries.
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