Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda has signed into law legislative amendments allowing the authorities to turn away irregular migrants at the border under a state-level extreme situation regime or a state of emergency.
"The president signed the amendments to the state border law today," Ridas Jasiulionis, the president's spokesman, told BNS on Wednesday.
The passed amendments formalise the existing practice of pushbacks, which has been criticised by human rights organisations. They say that the legislation would legitimise expulsions, a practice that violates international law.
Amnesty International has said that the law will "green-light torture".
The Interior Ministry, the initiator of the bill, says that the amendments make a clear distinction between natural migration and the instrumentalised migration facilitated by the Belarusian regime. The ministry also says that the law puts in place safeguards for vulnerable persons.
Faced with an influx of irregular migrants from Belarus, the Lithuanian interior minister in August 2021 signed a decree allowing border guards to turn away foreign nationals who cross the border irregularly.
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