Around a dozen migrant rights defenders held a rally outside Vilnius Airport on Tuesday night to protest deportation of seven asylum seekers to Nigeria.
Sienos Grupė (Border Group) NGO said earlier that the asylum seekers were to be flown to Nigeria on the night of 7 to 8 February.
“Their asylum applications were rejected by the Migration Department shortly before the flight, leaving them no time to appeal in court,” Sienos Grupė said in a statement. “This will be the second overnight deportation of asylum seekers to this country.”
The protest rally was “to draw public attention to possible abuse of power by state authorities, and deportation practices that violate EU and international law”, the group said.
“Deportations to Nigeria are becoming a systemic practice, ignoring the individual circumstances of the asylum seeker and the threats they face in case of deportation,” Sienos Grupė added.
On Wednesday, the group said it received a message from one of the people that were to be deported, saying the flight did not take off.
“We don’t know if any of our actions influenced this – conversations with the airlines and the pilots, the man who received a court decision the day before that his detention was unjustified, our demonstration, the demonstration of our colleagues at the airport in Germany… But we have peace of mind that we did what we could,” Sienos Grupė posted on its Facebook page.
In mid-December, Lithuanian authorities deported seven asylum seekers to Nigeria. Sienos Grupė then said they were not allowed to appeal the decision, although the authorities insisted everything was done by the book.
Newsletter
Every Friday morning.
