Lithuania’s State Border Guard Service (VSAT) has initiated a pre-trial investigation into “people smuggling”, which involves the work of Sienos Grupė (Border Group) volunteers, 15min.lt news website reported on Thursday.
The probe was launched after “it became known that information about migrants who had crossed the border from Belarus in Varėna District and their whereabouts in Lithuania were being hidden from the law enforcement,” VSAT said in a statement on Thursday morning.
VSAT would not confirm whether the probe concerned the Sienos Grupė, telling LRT the case involved “the previous two cases”.
Last week, five Pakistani nationals were admitted into Lithuania after an interim measure by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ordered the country not to push them back to Belarus. The migrants in Varėna District had been in the country for five days, something the volunteers knew about.
On December 24, a Syrian man was admitted into hospital after being found in a forest. He later asked for asylum.
In both cases, volunteers from Sienos Grupė were present. Medics from Doctors without Borders (MSF) were also on-site when the Syrian man was located.
Sienos Grupė declined to comment.
The Prosecutor General's Office would not disclose more details.
Read more: MSF among volunteers fined for helping migrant on Lithuania-Belarus border
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