Lithuania’s Interior Ministry will propose lifting the existing movement restrictions for irregular migrants who arrived in Lithuania via Belarus last year, Interior Minister Agnė Bilotaitė says.
“Our decision is that we will not propose extending the existing movement restrictions. That’s the plan,” the minister told reporters on Thursday.
Under the current legislation, irregular migrants can be detained for up to 18 months, with decisions taken every six months. The 12-month deadline is now approaching, and the ministry will propose not to extend the restriction for another six months, the minister said, adding that if the decision is approved, the majority of irregular migrants currently in Lithuania would leave the country.
“These people will probably leave for the countries they originally planned to go to as soon as they are free to leave their accommodation places. This will probably result in a situation where we will no longer have most of these people in Lithuania,” Bilotaitė said.
The authorities will attempt to send migrants whose asylum applications were denied back to their countries of origin within five years, she added.
Bilotaitė says Lithuania cannot keep asylum seekers locked up permanently, which is why she decided not to extend movement restrictions.
“We cannot keep these people indefinitely,” she said.
Last year, almost 4,200 irregular migrants entered Lithuania from Belarus, and currently some 2,700 of them remain in the country. Most of them are kept in migrant centres in Kybartai, Medininkai, and Pabradė.
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