(LRT) Tajik opposition activist Sulaimon Davlatov has been detained in Lithuania for two months, his representatives say. According to the State Security Department (VSD), Davlatov has links to terrorist organisations. [Sharofiddin] Gadoev, one of the leaders of the Tajik opposition and head […]
(Politico) A growing number of asylum seekers arriving on the EU’s eastern frontier is forcing Baltic countries to consider border closures with Russia, due to fears the Kremlin is weaponizing desperate people to create a migration crisis on the continent. Latvia, Lithuania […]
(AP) Belarus is introducing a visa-free travel arrangement with dozens of countries for a month, raising fears that neighboring Poland and Lithuania might see a sudden increase in unauthorized migration. The authoritarian president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, signed a decree allowing citizens […]
(Reuters) Lithuania’s parliament passed legislation on Tuesday allowing border guards to turn back migrants who cross its frontier illegally, brushing away concerns from human rights organizations. Lithuania, Poland and Latvia have reported a sharp increase since 2021 in migrants from countries such […]
(AP) Lithuania is seeking up to 120 million euros in compensation from Belarus, accusing its eastern neighbor of orchestrating the immigration of thousands of people, mainly from Africa and the Middle East. Since 2021, when the European Union imposed sanctions on Belarus […]
(AFP) Lithuania on Monday said it had finished building a fence along its border with Belarus to fight illegal immigration which the West accuses Minsk of orchestrating. Illegal immigration has soared in EU member Lithuania this year, with around 4,200 migrants mainly […]
(AFP) Baghdad has repatriated almost 4,000 of its citizens stuck on the Belarus borders with European Union members Poland, Lithuania and Latvia in recent weeks, Iraq’s foreign minister said Sunday. Since November 18, the Iraqi government has organised “10 flights from Baghdad […]
(AP) Latvia, Lithuania and Poland continue to use questionable methods to keep out migrants trying to enter from Belarus and are denying access to aid groups trying to help people stuck in border areas, senior U.N. refugee agency and European Union officials […]
(Reuters) The Lithuanian government on Wednesday decided against extending a state of emergency along the country’s border with Belarus and at camps hosting migrants who had arrived from the country, Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte said. EU member states accuse Belarus of encouraging […]
(Reuters) Migrants who cross into Lithuania from Belarus can be detained for up to a year, the Lithuanian parliament decided on Thursday, increasing an initial six-month detention limit. Eighty-one lawmakers backed the lengthening of the six-month detention period, which was introduced in […]
(Reuters) [The] Lithuanian Interior Ministry said Belarus authorities have ordered migrants to be cleared from a warehouse near the Polish border and from Minsk, which could lead to renewed attempts to push the migrants in large numbers into the European Union. At […]
(AFP) Lithuania said Thursday it would offer migrants a greater cash incentive to return home, as the Baltic state struggles to repatriate thousands who crossed into the EU member from Belarus. Each migrant who voluntarily opts to go back to their country […]
(AP) Top European Union migration officials offered Wednesday to ease the asylum-evaluation rules for Poland, Lithuania and Latvia in response to what the EU has called a “hybrid attack” by Belarus to destabilize the bloc using migrants and refugees. The move would […]
(AP) Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Monday accused Lithuanian authorities of dumping the bodies of migrants on the border between the two countries — a claim rejected by Lithuania amid soaring border tensions between Belarus and its European Union neighbors. Lukashenko also […]
(AFP) From her green-painted homestead near the Belarusian border, Lithuanian pensioner Jadvyga Mackevic remembers the day she saw three migrants coming out of the forest and being detained. “I barely saw them through my window. The border patrol immediately caught them,” the […]
(AP) Hundreds of migrants who were camped in the cold on the Poland-Belarus border have been moved to a nearby warehouse in Belarusian territory, reports said Wednesday, with some still harboring hopes of entering the European Union. The move came a day […]
(AP) Poland reinforced its border with Belarus with more riot police on Tuesday, a day after groups of migrants tried to storm through a razor-wire fence on the eastern frontier where thousands have camped on the Belarusian side in the tense standoff. […]
(AP) Hundreds if not thousands of migrants sought to storm the border from Belarus into Poland on Monday, cutting razor wire fences and using branches to try and climb over them. The siege escalated a crisis along the European Union’s eastern border […]
(Reuters) Lithuania has built the first stretches of a steel wall on its border with Belarus since migrants from the Middle East and other areas began entering from Belarus this year. The European Union accuses Belarus of deliberately encouraging the migrants to […]
(AP) European Union leaders pledged on Friday to “keep up the pressure” on Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko to halt the flow of migrants from his country and raised the prospect of new sanctions amid calls by some bloc members to build walls […]
(AP) European Union foreign ministers looked at ways on Monday to stop the illegal migration into the 27-nation bloc from neighboring Belarus, including stopping companies from leasing jets to Belarusian airline Belavia. The EU has accused the government of Belarusian President Alexander […]
(Baltic Times) Migrants suspected of being linked to terrorist organizations have been isolated and pose no threat, Lithuanian Defense Minister Arvydas Anusauskas and Laurynas Kasciunas, chairman of the parliamentary Committee on National Security and Defense, said on Friday. Speaking with journalists in […]
(AP) Belarus’ exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya on Wednesday urged the global community to stop a “humanitarian catastrophe” which she said is being created by the Belarusian regime facilitating largescale migration into the European Union. Thousands of migrants from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan […]
(AP) Lawmakers in Belarus have voted to suspend an agreement with the European Union obliging the ex-Soviet nation to take back migrants that crossed its territory into the EU. The vote late Monday in the upper house of the Belarusian parliament formalizes […]
(Baltic Times) The migrant suspected of having had ties with terrorists has been already sent out of Lithuania, Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite has confirmed. “Yes, that person is definitely no longer in the Republic of Lithuania,” she told ministers on Tuesday. In […]
(AP) Two United Nations agencies requested access Tuesday to asylum-seekers stranded at Belarus’s border with Poland and Lithuania, after four migrants were found dead in the area. The International Organization for Migration and the U.N. Refugee Agency called on the governments involved […]
(AP) The prime ministers of Poland and Lithuania said Friday that tighter security at their borders with Belarus was the best way to ease pressure from migrant inflows there, as they expect what they called a “hybrid attack” from Belarus to continue. […]
(Reuters) Lithuania on Thursday sent five Afghan migrants back to Belarus shortly after they had crossed the border despite the European Court of Human Rights earlier saying they should be allowed to stay. The migrants had tried to enter Lithuania unsuccessfully at […]
(AP) A top European Union official condemned Belarus and expressed support for Poland, Lithuania and Latvia on Friday as a state of emergency took effect in areas of eastern Poland following a surge in illegal migration. EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell, […]
(Reuters) Lithuania said on Monday it would complete a 508-km (315-mile) fence along its border with Belarus by September next year to stop migrants it says are crossing in record numbers orchestrated by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. Lithuania, Latvia and Poland have […]
(Reuters) The leaders of Poland, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia came together on Saturday to condemn Belarus for allowing migrants to illegally cross its borders into the European Union. “All European Union member states have a duty to protect borders and to stop […]
(Reuters) A dozen Belarusian officers in riot gear illegally crossed into Lithuanian territory on Tuesday while pushing a group of 35 Iraqi migrants over the border, Lithuania’s border guard service said. Lithuania, a member of the European Union, accuses Belarus of deliberately […]
(AP) An influx of migrants from Iraq and elsewhere into Lithuania allegedly abetted by neighboring Belarus appears to have stopped, but with a pile of asylum applications to process and local communities angry about nearby migrant camps, the Lithuanian government faces an […]
(Reuters) The number of migrants illegally entering the European Union by crossing the Western Balkans has almost doubled this year, EU border agency Frontex said on Thursday, with the majority coming from Syria and Afghanistan. Frontex said 22,600 migrants were detected illegally […]
(AFP) Ukraine has sent more than 38 tonnes of barbed wire to Lithuania as “humanitarian aid” as the EU country struggles to stem an influx of illegal migrants from neighbouring Belarus, authorities said on Thursday. In July, Lithuania’s military started to put […]
(Reuters) Latvia declared a state of emergency along its border on Tuesday and Lithuania decided to erect a fence in new measures to deter migrants they say Belarus is encouraging to cross illegally in order to pressure European states. Rising numbers of […]
(Reuters) A record number of migrants have crossed the Polish border with Belarus since Friday, the Border Guard said on Monday, amid accusations Minsk is using illegal crossings to pressure European Union states. Poland and Lithuania have seen a surge in illegal […]
(Reuters) European Union home affairs ministers will discuss a surge of illegal border crossings from Belarus to EU member state Lithuania at an extraordinary meeting on Aug. 18, the Slovenian EU presidency said on Friday. Representatives of the EU border agency Frontex […]
(Reuters) Poland accused Belarus of sending a growing number of migrants over the border in retaliation for Warsaw’s decision this week to give refuge to Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, a Belarusian athlete who refused to return home from the Tokyo Olympics. A deputy interior […]
(AP) The president of Belarus on Thursday ordered the country’s security forces to tighten control over the border with Lithuania, which earlier this week started turning away immigrants attempting to cross in from Belarus. Lithuania, a member of the European Union, has […]
(Politico) The EU is ramping up pressure on Iraq to stop its airlines from flying to Belarus, which helps Minsk send asylum seekers into the EU in retaliation against sanctions imposed by the bloc. On Thursday, there were signs that the pressure […]
(Politico) The number of migrants crossing into Lithuania from Belarus could top 10,000 by the end of the summer, Lithuania’s foreign minister warned as he urged the EU to “step up” actions to stop the arrivals. Gabrielius Landsbergis told POLITICO’s Brussels Playbook […]
(AP) Lithuania has ordered its border guards to turn away, by force if needed, migrants attempting to enter the Baltic country, as a surge of Iraqis and others coming in from neighboring Belarus has emerged as a major foreign policy issue. Lithuania […]
(AP) European Union officials on Monday pledged millions of euros to help Lithuania tackle a migrant crisis that it blames on the government of neighboring Belarus and its authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko. Ylva Johansson, the EU commissioner of home affairs, arrived in […]
(Reuters) The European Union will consider sanctions against migrant smugglers and those involved in human trafficking to address a surge in “irregular” border crossings from Belarus, the bloc’s top diplomat on Friday said. Lithuania, an EU member state, has reported an uptick […]
(AP) The European Union’s top migration official is urging member countries to help Lithuania beef up surveillance on its border with Belarus and not to give in to political pressure from Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. Lithuania’s border guard service said it detained […]
(AFP) With a pair of binoculars, a German police officer working for the EU border agency Frontex scans an empty field crossed by the Belarus-Lithuania border on the lookout for migrants. The Baltic EU member state has seen more than 2,000 arrivals […]
(Reuters) European Union border agency Frontex will deploy 60 border guards with helicopters and vehicles to Lithuania’s frontier with Belarus next week, after a surge in migrants crossing illegally, which the EU says has been orchestrated by Minsk. In response to EU […]
(AP) Iraq’s foreign minister said Thursday his government would investigate trafficking networks responsible for smuggling hundreds of Iraqis into Europe, specifically via Belarus to Lithuania. Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein made the promise after a meeting in Baghdad with his visiting Lithuanian counterpart, […]
(AP) Mustafa Hussein Hamad kicked a dirty ball between two old tires in the schoolyard where he spends most of his time. He and dozens of other migrants are fenced in at an old school after walking at night through the thick […]
Thank you for reading Eye on Islamism.