After a protest on Sunday against Lithuania’s migration policy, politicians representing both the ruling majority and the opposition say that the country must protect its border against an influx of migrants.
The protest took place before Monday’s escalation on Poland’s border with Belarus and the subsequent move by Lithuania to introduce a state of emergency in its border regions.
Read more: Videos show hundreds of migrants approaching Polish border from Belarus
Lithuania’s ruling conservative politicians maintain that the country’s pushback policy is aimed at protecting not only the Lithuanian but also the EU border, so there could be no question of reversing this decision.
“I am afraid that this protest is a much bigger threat to national security than the pushback policy,” Paulius Saudargas, deputy parliament speaker of the conservative Homeland Union, wrote on Facebook on Sunday.
“If it was not for the pushback decision, today, we would have 40,000 irregular migrants instead of 4,000, as well as increasing migration flows, population protests, and a triumphant dictator,” he added.
Read more: Migration crisis in Baltics and Poland
Meanwhile, Laurynas Kasčiūnas, chairman of the parliamentary National Security and Defence Committee, said that the protest against Lithuania’s migration policy was organised by representatives of “the radical left”.
Emilija Švobaitė, a representative of the May 1 Trade Union (G1PS) and protest organiser, said that such a reaction by politicians was not surprising.
“We could have expected such comments,” she told LRT.lt. “But we have a completely different opinion […]. Even the events at the Polish border stem from the migration policy that turns people away, leaving them wandering in forests.”
According to her, the government often says that migrants can legally cross into Lithuania via border checkpoints. But the Lithuania-Belarus border is almost 700 kilometres long, and there are only a handful of checkpoints, so reaching them is usually impossible, Švobaitė added.
Humane policy
The border protection is necessary, but Lithuania’s migration policy could be more humane, the opposition politicians say.
“The weather is cold, and there are a lot of people at the border. But we all understand that this is a hybrid attack organised by Mr Lukashenko,” Dovilė Šakalienė, a parliament member of the Social Democratic Party, told LRT.lt.
According to her, data shows that around a thousand migrants arrive in Minsk every day.
“If we opened the border, as some idealistic people suggest, Lithuania would not be able to deal with 30,000 migrants coming every month. It is unrealistic,” Šakalienė said.
But she added that Lithuania must resolve humanitarian questions related to migrants stranded at the border. According to the politician, foreigners could be provided with warm sleeping bags or tents that could help them sleep in cold weather conditions.
Šakalienė disagreed with conservative politicians’ comments that the protest against Lithuania’s migration policy was a threat to national security. In a democratic state, every person has a right to express one’s opinion freely, the politician said.
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