A senior UN refugee agency official is urging Lithuania to reconsider its policy of turning back irregular migrants at the border with Belarus and to fully meet its commitments under the European Union’s migration solidarity mechanism.
“In our opinion, this emergency legislation should be reviewed,” Annika Sandlund, the UNHCR representative for the Nordic and Baltic countries, told BNS in an interview.
Sandlund said the UNHCR condemns the instrumentalisation of migrants by any state but stressed that those being used for political pressure remain victims.
“We do not think that people should be used as pawns in a political chess game,” she said. “But we also recognise that people who are instrumentalised are victims. They are often victims of smuggling, of exploitation, of various criminal gangs.”
Lithuania has pushed back nearly 1,600 irregular migrants so far this year, up from 1,002 in all of 2024. The influx from Belarus, which the West blames on the Minsk government, began in 2021.
Sandlund said that even if migrants are instrumentalised, their asylum claims should still be assessed individually.
“That does not mean they are not refugees,” she said. “It is a separate determination that looks at the situation in your country of origin, not how you arrived. From our point of view, that could definitely be reviewed at this stage.”
Lithuania has effectively enforced migrant pushbacks since 2021, and the Seimas formalised the policy in 2023.
UNHCR: Lithuania should stick to EU refugee quota
Sandlund also called on Lithuania to honour its obligations under the EU’s Migration and Asylum Pact, warning that deviations by individual countries could undermine the bloc’s fragile compromise.
“We think it would be fairer to just accept what has already been decided,” she said. “The EU pact was years in the making, so all countries had many opportunities to negotiate, and in the end it is a compromise. If they do not, and everyone starts going their own way, the whole thing will fall apart.”
The Lithuanian government decided last week that it will accept only half of the migrants assigned to it next year under the EU solidarity mechanism and will pay a financial contribution for the remaining share. Lithuania is set to begin meeting its commitments in June 2026.
Prime Minister Inga Ruginienė has said the country will seek to cap arrivals at around 40 people, arguing that this is the maximum its institutions can adequately vet.
Sandlund urged the government to follow through on what it agreed to at the EU level.
“It is true that countries have the right under the solidarity mechanism, and under normal resettlement, to ultimately decide who comes,” she said. “But this mechanism does allow you to vet the refugees. We would encourage you to stick to the agreement.”
Under the pact adopted in May 2024, Lithuania must each year accept roughly 160 migrants entering the EU or pay €3.28 million instead. The Interior Ministry has said the final contributions will be set once the European Council adopts its decision.
Any financial contribution would need to be included in next year’s budget, and Lithuania would pay it in 2027.
Lithuania has long been reluctant to take in additional refugees, arguing that it has already sheltered large numbers of Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s war and continues to face attempts by irregular migrants to cross the Belarusian border.
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