Out of around 4,200 migrants who have crossed into Lithuania this year, only six have been granted asylum. At least a few ask to be returned to their country of origin every day, according to the Migration Department.
Around half of the asylum seekers whose applications get rejected by the Migration Department appeal the decisions. This week, the first five migrants have received final and non-appealable rejections of their asylum applications. They will be sent back to their countries of origin.
Read more: Migration crisis in Baltics and Poland
“In general, we are finalising all decisions. The very last asylum seeker may expect to receive a decision at the end of December or beginning of January,” Evelina Gudzinskaitė, head of the Migration Department, told LRT Radio.
Only six migrants, or fewer than one percent of all applicants, have been granted asylum in Lithuania this year.
“The most complex applications have been postponed to the end of the process. Thus, the number of positive decisions may increase slightly at the very end of the process,” Gudzinskaitė said.
She added that at least one or two migrants ask for a voluntary return to their country of origin every day.
“Both we and the State Border Guard Service (VSAT) receive requests of voluntary return every day [...]. We make decisions and pass them on to the VSAT that helps migrants purchase tickets and provides them with a one-off return payment,” the head of the Migration Department said.
Meanwhile, Lithuanian border guards are no longer sending migrants back to Belarus, if they are found deeper in the country, head of VSAT Rustamas Liubajevas said on Thursday.
In his words, only migrants detained within the border area, stretching five kilometres into the country, are currently being turned around. In all other cases, migrants get detained.
Almost 5,600 irregular migrants have been prevented from entering Lithuania since the country introduced a policy of pushbacks in early August.
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