Sunday

10th Dec 2023

Lithuania law to allow 'volunteer' border guards to use violence

Listen to article

Lithuania's parliament passed a controversial new law allowing volunteers from around Europe to join its national border guard force — while giving them the right to use violence against asylum seekers and migrants crossing in from Belarus.

"There is no restriction for people from abroad to come," Emilija Švobaitė, a lawyer and rights campaigner at Sienos Grupė, a Lithuanian NGO, told EUobserver on Thursday (20 April) ahead of the vote.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

She said it means radical rightwing groups from Germany could come and patrol alongside national border guards under the provisions of the state border and protection draft law.

Meanwhile, journalists and independent monitors will be banned from the border, she said.

The billed passed on Thursday with 69 in favour, 7 against and 24 abstentions. There is still a final vote to pass the law, which is scheduled for next Tuesday.

More specifically, the bill described volunteers as 'sponsors' and says they will be allowed to "use coercion", help make arrests, and other patrol guard-like duties.

It also says those that excel in their tasks may end up being nominated for state awards.

Sponsors can come from any EU state so long as they speak some Lithuanian, are at least 18 years old, and are not currently serving as a border guard somewhere else.

The volunteers will be allowed to provide emergency medical assistance.

But other tasks including the identification of vulnerable persons, humanitarian and other assistance, help in asylum applications were all vetoed on Thursday.

Pushbacks

Rights campaigners and academics have also taken issue with the bill for allowing patrol guards to force people back into Belarus.

"Basically they are legalising the pushbacks at the border," said Monika Guliakaitė-Danisevičienė of the Lithuanian Human Rights Centre, an NGO.

Similar comments were made by Amnesty International earlier this week, which described the Lithuanian bill as a green-light to torture.

Lithuania has a 680km border with Belarus, some 550km of which is fences.

The country declared a state of emergency after Belarus enticed people to cross into Lithuania as part of what the EU describes as a politically driven ploy by Minsk to destabilise member states.

At least one person, a 32-year old from Sri Lanka, was found dead earlier this year at the border. Others have lost limbs to frostbite.

Lithuania has already been faulted for its asylum rules.

Last summer, the European Court of Justice ruled against Lithuania for preventing irregular migrants from applying for asylum and allowing mass detention during a state of emergency.

But Lithuania's ministry of interior maintains that the draft law is needed to ensure control of the state border and better manage asylum.

Dainius Daukša, an advisor from the ministry, said they want to exclude foreigners who violate the procedure for crossing the state border from entering the territory of Lithuania only during an emergency situation.

"The draft law provides for an individual assessment of the need for and provision of assistance to foreigners crossing the state border," he said, in an email.

Those assessments will exclusively be made by border guards who have been accused of already carrying out pushbacks. Rights defenders note that there are cases where people were illegally pushed back but then allowed to return to obtain asylum after the European Court of Human Rights intervened.

Daukša says people can still apply for asylum at border control posts, in Lithuania or through diplomatic missions or consular offices abroad.

But a report by the Lithuanian Red Cross says that in reality people are restricted in their efforts to apply for asylum at border control points and at Lithuanian diplomatic missions.

According to Lithuanian state figures, some 850 people were turned back at the border this year.

For its part, the EU's border guard Frontex has 17 agents deployed in Lithuania. The European Commission said it was not yet able to comment on the draft law.

Frontex ends Lithuania border surveillance operation

The agency is suspending border surveillance operations in Lithuania. It also wants to reverse a rule which requires it to suspend operations in EU states where violations take place — and instead send in more agents.

EU Commission defends Baltic states accused of pushbacks

The European Commission has defended policies enacted by Latvia and Lithuania to stem migration at their shared borders with Belarus — despite widespread criticism that the Baltic EU states are trampling on asylum rights.

Latest News

  1. How Moldova is trying to control tuberculosis
  2. Many problems to solve in Dubai — honesty about them is good
  3. Sudanese fleeing violence find no haven in Egypt or EU
  4. How should EU reform the humanitarian aid system?
  5. EU suggests visa-bans on Israeli settlers, following US example
  6. EU ministers prepare for all-night fiscal debate
  7. Spain's Nadia Calviño backed to be EIB's first female chief
  8. Is there hope for the EU and eurozone?

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  2. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries
  3. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  5. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  6. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us