Lithuania must “defend itself” and will not back down from its policies on migrants and asylum seekers, the country’s Interior Minister Agnė Bilotaitė said following a damning ruling from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).
“Lithuania has taken all important decisions and measures to protect its national security and the European Union’s external border, and right now we don’t see the situation changing significantly to the point where we can back away from our decisions. Lithuania will certainly defend itself if such threats persist,” Bilotaitė told reporters on Friday.
Read more: CJEU finds Lithuania’s migrant policies in violation of EU law
Lithuania experienced a migration crisis last summer when several thousand migrants, mostly from the Middle East and Africa, crossed into the country from Belarus. Vilnius accused Minsk of orchestrating migrant smuggling as a means of political pressure, calling it “hybrid attack”. Lithuania subsequently adopted policies of detaining irregular migrants for up to a year and pushing back those that attempt to cross the border.
The CJEU ruled on Thursday that Lithuanian laws prevent irregular migrants from applying for asylum and allow putting them in automatic detention, something that runs counter to EU directives.
Bilotaitė insisted, however, that there are avenues for migrants to ask for asylum.
“Lithuania has a system in place that makes it possible to apply for asylum. It’s not that we don’t make it possible. We make it possible at the embassy, at certain border checkpoints. Unfortunately, we don’t see any examples of willingness to use that opportunity, for understandable reasons and the [Belarusian] regime’s involvement in the process,” the minister said.
According to Bilotaitė, the decisions taken by Lithuania were necessary not only for the country’s national security but also for the protection of the EU’s external border.
She also said that Lithuania’s actions had been coordinated with international institutions and the European Commission, adding that the current legal regulation on irregular migrants is impracticable, therefore, Lithuania is seeking to change the rules.
“Up until now, Europe has not faced this kind of attack. Until now, the migration policy has been very different and the legal system has been adapted to it. The system has not been adapted to situations like the one Lithuania is facing, and that is why we are seeking change,” Bilotaitė said.
The CJEU’s preliminary ruling was issued under a fast track procedure by a judicial panel after it heard a request from the Lithuanian Supreme Administrative Court in the case of one migrant.
The Court ruled that both the detention of irregular migrants in times of war, a state of emergency or an extreme situation on the sole ground of being in the country illegally, as well as denying them the possibility to apply for asylum, run counter to EU directives.
Earlier this week, Amnesty International published a critical report on Lithuania’s migrant centres, saying that the country’s authorities “have arbitrarily detained thousands of people in militarised centres, where they have been subjected to inhumane conditions, torture and other ill-treatment”.
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