Lithuania is sending a diplomat to Iraq in a bid to speed up the return of irregular migrants to their countries of origin, Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said on Monday. 

"Our ministry's representative should start working in Baghdad soon, in the coming days," he told reporters after meeting with Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau in Vilnius.

Landsbergis noted that the process had taken time because "it's not easy to start working in Baghdad; [due to the] training [and] the various instructions that are needed".

The growing number of migrants who agree to return voluntarily is encouraging, but there are challenges in deporting people, according to the Lithuanian minister.

"Convincing Iraq to accept deported people is still a challenge, even though the EU has an agreement with Iraq on deportation," he said. "Iraq simply treats this agreement differently."

The EU currently has readmission agreements with 18 countries, but not with Iraq, Cameroon, or other prominent countries of origin of asylum seekers in Lithuania.

Last week, Evelina Gudzinskaitė, director of the Lithuanian Migration Department, said that around 90 irregular migrants had left the country "in one way or another", and several dozen more had applied to do so.

Over 4,100 people have crossed irregularly into Lithuania from Belarus so far this year. Vilnius accuses the Minsk regime of orchestrating the influx, calling it "hybrid aggression".

Neighbuoring Poland and Latvia have seen an increase in irregular crossings after Lithuanian border guards started pushing migrants back to Belarus.