Sienos Grupė (Border Group), an organisation providing assistance to irregular migrants, says it has information of several cases when migrants who attempted to cross into Lithuania from Belarus have disappeared.
In January, Sienos Grupė reported that the first body of an irregular migrant was found in Lithuania. The Vilnius Regional Prosecutor’s Office is still investigating the case but confirmed that the body of a Sri Lankan citizen was found near the border with Belarus in August last year.
Meanwhile, Euronews reported on Wednesday that there could be around 30 missing migrants at the Lithuanian border, according to the Sienos Grupė volunteer.
The same volunteer told LRT.lt that the organisation is in contact with migrants crossing the Lithuania-Belarus border and their families. The NGO provides the migrants with humanitarian assistance, such as dry clothes, food, and water, if they need it.
In this way, volunteers record cases when migrants disappear and do not answer. According to the Sienos Grupė volunteer, it is impossible to determine the exact number of such missing migrants, as some of them get back in touch with their relatives after a few weeks.
“But there are at least 10 people who have been missing for several months,” she said.
In her words, if Lithuanian border guards identified people who are pushed back into Belarus, it would be easier to trace the missing migrants.
“The Latvian border guards take photos of people they meet at the border and keep a list of their names. In Belarus, they do the same. On the Lithuanian side, we don’t have similar activities,” the volunteer said.
‘This is nonsense’
According to the Lithuanian State Border Guard Service (VSAT), it is quite possible that some migrants disappear on their way to Lithuania via Belarus.
“It is possible that they disappear, it is a long journey [...]. But they may be sitting in a hotel in Belarus, maybe they have crossed the border and are in Germany?” said VSAT spokesperson Giedrius Mišutis.
He noted that the Belarusian border guards are spreading fake messages alleging Lithuanian officers of hiding or throwing the bodies of dead migrants into Belarus. Mišutis also criticised the activities of Sienos Grupė.
“There are two sources that say this – the Belarusian propaganda and those pseudo-volunteers who have taken on the role of patrolling the border but have never contacted VSAT. This is nonsense,” he said.
According to him, around 19,500 migrants have tried to cross the Lithuanian border since August 2021, so if 10 people disappeared, it would not be surprising.
There have been several cases of Belarusian migrants dying at the Polish border. Lithuanian authorities say they have no knowledge of any dead migrants at the country’s border.
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