A controversial law on border protection, which is making its way in the Lithuanian parliament, may allow volunteers from around Europe to join border guard service and use violence against migrants, EUObserver reports.
The bill, which legalises the controversial practise of forcing irregular migrants back into Belarus, passed the first reading on Thursday with 69 votes in favour, seven against and 24 abstentions. The legislation is being pushed via a fast-track procedure and is scheduled for the final vote on April 25.
Among other things, it institutes border guard service “sponsors” – volunteers who can patrol and use coercion against migrants and asylum seekers, help make arrests, and perform other patrol guard-like duties.
“There is no restriction for people from abroad to come,” Emilija Švobaitė, a lawyer and rights campaigner at the Sienos Grupė (Border Group) NGO, told EUobserver ahead of Thursday’s vote.
She said it means that, for example, radical right-wing groups from Germany could come and patrol alongside national border guards.
Meanwhile, journalists and independent monitors will be banned from the border, she said.
Further reading
Sponsors can be citizens of any EU member state so long as they speak some Lithuanian and have declared their residence in the country, are at least 18 years old, and are not currently serving as a border guard somewhere else.
Rights groups have also criticised the practice of Lithuanian border guard service to force people back into Belarus. The policy was performed under a decree by the Interior Ministry, but is now being transposed into law.
“Basically they are legalising the pushbacks at the border,” EUObserver quotes Monika Guliakaitė-Danisevičienė of the Lithuanian Human Rights Centre NGO.
Similar comments were made by Amnesty International earlier this week, which described the Lithuanian bill as a green-light to torture.
According to EUObserver, the European Commission said it was not yet able to comment on the draft law.
Further reading
Newsletter
Every Friday morning.
