Lukashenko’s pressure, Latvia must now bear: Lithuania is not protected either

According to VSAT, this year, Belarusians entered Lithuania illegally migrant Try entering 452 times. According to G. Mišutis, these numbers are small.

“This year, there were 452, which is very few. 452 people tried to enter illegally, but most of them<...>Not even entering the Lithuanian territory. They went beyond the physical barrier, were caught by the video system, and maybe even by the border guards live. The migrants were already approaching the border from the Belarusian side, but the VSAT patrols, the officers quickly found themselves in that place, they didn’t even try to go, they didn’t encourage trying,<...>They leave and return to the Belarusian side. We can’t even tell their nationality, whether they are coming here for the first or second time,” said G. Mišutis.

In Latvia, the situation is much more complicated.

“They have now activated<...>. Judging from the recent months, they are facing greater pressure from Belarus. There are more than 4,000 people in Latvia. It is estimated that the number of unauthorized immigrants is 10 times higher than here. ”said the VSAT representative.

According to him, Latvia is also facing illegal secondary migration.

G. Mišutis noted that “it happened that the border with illegal immigrants from Belarus was occupied and they were detained”, adding that there were also cases of detention in Lithuania.

“We have observed an increase in flows when migrants try to cross the internal border from Latvia to Lithuania, from Lithuania to Poland and further to Western Europe, often with the help of transporters or, less often, with the use of shuttle buses.

A few days ago, a Ukrainian was arrested for transporting four Afghans. True, they had applied for asylum – another category. Some immediately crossed the border and tried to leave, others sought asylum and ended up at the Foreigners Registration Center. Asylum seekers have the right to leave the country’s territory within a limited time, but they abused this right<...>“The asylum applications of these four Afghans were not processed and they tried to flee to Western Europe,” the VSAT representative commented.

Indeed, he admitted that not all migrants travelling illegally from Latvia to Western Europe were detained in Lithuania. To stop them all, controls on internal borders should be restored.

“Of course, formally, at the internal borders – the Schengen area – it does not exist since internal controls were abolished in 2007. But in this case, there is attention and selective controls at both the Polish border and the Latvian border, where detentions are particularly frequent. People are concerned about shuttle buses because they know they are trying to use them, and cars are banned from passing, and there are detentions, depending on other risk factors.

Of course, across the nearly 600 km border with Latvia, there are many roads and you don’t check every one of them. Migrants entering Latvia and moving to Western Europe are certainly not detained (all of them).

There is another barrier at the border with Poland, of course, the border there is shorter and has fewer roads, but this is again the border of the Schengen area.

It is estimated that about two-thirds of all people who try to enter from Latvia are detained by Lithuanian border guards and up to one-third by Polish border guards. The Polish border guards then hand (the migrants) over to the Lithuanian border guards, who hand them over to the Latvian border guards. All migrants who enter Latvia are returned to Latvia,” G. Mišutis said of the situation with secondary migration.

Why is the pressure on the Latvian border greater than the Lithuanian border now?

According to VSAT representatives, this is about border protection – the Latvians have only now finished building a physical barrier on the border, while Lithuania has had it for several years.

“They started late and are only now planning a border surveillance system.<...>our border monitoring system has been covered for a long time. The physical reinforcement of our borders was completed a long time ago, and naturally those who organize illegal immigration to Western Europe through three countries, including Poland, and state agencies involved in and exerting pressure on illegal immigration to these three countries, G. Mišutis commented, “From the Belarusian side, the place where the probability of achieving the goal is higher was chosen”, and it is not excluded that greater pressure from Belarus to exploit immigrants is also a response to Latvian political decisions.

G. Mišutis said that although the current situation of illegal immigration in Lithuania is stable, we cannot be calm.

“These figures have changed many times. For example, in 2021, our country had twice as many attempts (to cross the border) as Latvia. When the crisis began in the middle of the year, we had more than 8,000 people, they had 4,000. In 2022, we had more than 11,000 again. Reversed, they had five thousand. The Poles had even more, much more,” he said.

“At the push of a button, on the other side, the regime can quickly divert (the flow of money) from the Polish border, from the Latvian border. But at the moment, eight months later, these 430 people this year are coming … At the beginning of the crisis, several hundred unauthorized (migrants) arrived in a matter of days. Lithuania is definitely not a pressure center now, but history shows that there used to be roller coasters,” the interviewer noted.

When asked whether Lithuania still needs to take action against illegal immigration and attempts to enter the country, or whether we have done the necessary work and now need to continue control, G. Mišutis asserted that the current level must be maintained. However, according to him, this is not all that is needed now: border guards must also be prepared for various possible conflict situations.

“Of course, physical barriers and border surveillance systems are a very big tool for border guards, if not a turning point. Of course, there is something else here: service equipment, reaction capabilities (because cameras record), and well-equipped, motivated border guards who receive a normal salary and have normal working tools, weapons and means of transportation must respond. After all, it must be professionally prepared. This is the level that has been achieved, and it is necessary to maintain the enhanced protection, which, by the way, is still there despite the lower numbers. Financial and technical issues are related to this.

But in recent years, the importance of the Border Guards has grown beyond just detaining illegal immigrants. In the context of geopolitics, the service simulates situations and threats in the event of a possible conflict, becoming the first barrier operating at the border for a certain period of time. In the event of a war, we are also part of the armed forces by law. In addition to illegal immigration, there are all the threats that emerged in the context of the war in Ukraine, and VSAT must also be prepared for other situations. This in turn has to do with the weapons, transportation, training and motivation of border guards<...>. The fact that everything has been achieved, we can say that we can calm down, but this is not the case. It is unlikely that this would be the case until we had such neighbors in our neighborhood – both of them, “said G. Mišutis.

Belarus Poland is a close ally of Russia, which has waged war on Ukraine. Poland and other Baltic states have accused Belarusian dictator Aleksandra Luksankas of organizing the transport of migrants to the EU’s external borders.

Lithuania is offering assistance to Latvians as the number of migrants trying to illegally cross the Latvian border increases – Lithuanian border guards have come to the aid of their Latvian colleagues.