VILNIUS, LITHUANIA – Thousands of migrants are descending on the tiny East European country of Lithuania, and officials there are blaming neighboring Belarus for intentionally causing the crisis.
Tempers flare in a small Lithuanian village as locals protest the building of a new refugee camp. It will soon house hundreds from Iraq, Syria, and Africa, and these Lithuanians fear the better life migrants seek will come at the expense of their own.
“The migrants will not let us live in peace,” one protestor told CBN News. “They have decided to invade this small village. There will be more immigrants here than us locals. We have small children. Who will guarantee they are safe?”
The government here has little choice but to keep building camps as record numbers of migrants make this tiny country the newest refugee hotspot in an ongoing crisis that has plagued the European Union since 2015. Lithuanian officials say Belarus is weaponizing migrants against them.
On the border between Lithuania and Belarus, we saw people camping in the woods on the Belarus side. They are preparing to cross illegally into the European Union. Many of them are unaccompanied minors, or at least they say they are. When we went and talked with the head of the migrant center on the Lithuanian side, she told us some of those unaccompanied minors are actually adults.
Beatrice Bernotiene, Director of the Refugee Reception Center, said, “I can see the people and I can tell they are strongly built. So they pretend to be 16 or 17, but I think they are maybe 26 or 28 years old.
The conflict has been brewing with Belorussian President Alexander Lukashenko after allegations recent elections were rigged. Known as Europe’s last dictator, Lukashenko has threatened to flood the EU with migrants, and worse.
Mantas Adomėnas, Lithuanian Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs told CBN News, “We felt ourselves immune and until a few months ago when the Belorussian dictator decided that he would use migration flows as a means to punish Lithuania for its principled stance, as we did not recognize the stolen election. And so his border guards suddenly started just propelling people into Lithuania. And then explicitly Alexander Lukashenko said that he was going to flood the EU and into the countries, which oppose his regime with migrants, drugs. And recently he said also radioactive materials.”
And the migrants also admit the Belorussian government is behind the push.
Ali, an Iraqi migrant said, “One month ago Lukashenko opened visa for Iraqi people. I don’t know, maybe they need more people to come to Minsk. I think they have problems with Lithuania. That’s why they’ve opened visas for us. They help us. They show me the way. The Belorussian military catches him, they immediately bring him here, to some near area between Lithuania and Belarus.”
One refugee center we visited hosts migrants from all over the world as far away as Venezuela. But most of the migrants come from the Middle East, especially Iraq and Kurdistan. However, almost none of them actually qualify for asylum.
“So I don’t know how long I will stay here,” said Ali. We are not animals. We are human… I don’t care about Lukashenko, I don’t care about the border. I care about me and these people.”
And the weaponization of migrants isn’t helping. These Iraqis won’t be allowed to continue into the EU, because Lithuania knows each one that succeeds means many more will come. Meanwhile, the government is scrambling to stop others from crossing.
Lithuania’s Prime Minister, Ingrida Šimonytė, said, “We’re trying to increase the physical presence of our officers at the border as well as some physical barriers that we are imposing in the sectors where we think that the pressure is likely to be highest. I and my government intend to do whatever it takes to ensure that only people who are persecuted for political reasons stay here, and we are a friendly country to this end.”
The remainder of this article is available in its entirety at CBN
