EU Home Affairs Commissioner: Exclusion of migrants across borders has no place in the EU legal system

Participating in an international conference on border security in Vilnius, she said that migrants should be given the right to seek asylum, but at the same time welcomed Lithuania, which had been able to cope successfully with the migrant crisis.

Meanwhile, Lithuanian officials have reiterated that this is not a normal migration crisis, but a hybrid attack, in which Member States must have the tools to protect both their borders and the security of other EU countries.

The conference was attended by the Ministers of the Interior and Migration of the 15 EU countries, the heads of the European Police Agency “Europol” and the EU Border Guard Agency “Frontex” and a total of 29 national delegations.

Ministers called for urgent action to strengthen the bloc’s borders and crack down on human smugglers, thus protecting both EU citizens and the migrants and refugees themselves on the perilous journey from the Middle East, Africa and Asia to Europe.

Prior to that, the participants visited the Lithuanian-Belarusian border and were introduced to the measures to strengthen it. Lithuanian Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite emphasized that the peace that is currently being seen at the border is deceptive.

“Our border guards know that a group of migrants driven by Belarusian border guards may appear at any time. There is also a possibility that specially trained groups of migrants will try to enter. [Lietuvā] by force, “she said.

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As Johanson said at the conference, it is important to deter people fleeing poverty or conflict in their own countries from smuggling routes in good time, but it is equally important to create a new European system for returning migrants to their countries of origin if they are not allowed to stay in the European Union.

“We can do much more if we set up a European return system, but I need your support to do that,” she said, adding that she was going to discuss the plan in more detail next month at a ministerial meeting in France.

Regarding the non-admission of illegal migrants, she called it illegal, stating that migrants should be given the right to seek asylum.

“Therefore, we have submitted a proposal (…) to make it clear what exceptions are possible for Lithuania, Latvia and Poland in these special circumstances and what exceptions are not possible,” Johansone told Lithuanian public television during the visit.

Meanwhile, the Lithuanian Interior Minister reiterated that the situation at the EU’s eastern borders is not a normal migration crisis, but a hybrid attack organized by the Belarussian regime, so “new legal instruments and new border control standards” are not needed.

According to Laurīns Kasčūns, the head of the National Security and Defense Committee of the Lithuanian Seimas, Lithuania will not abandon the current practice and will decide for itself what steps are useful in resolving the crisis.

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According to him, incorporating the practice of refusing migrants into the legal system “is a difficult task, but [Jūhansones kritika] “It does not mean that we do not have to strive for it.”

At the end of the conference, the participants adopted a joint statement stating that the security of the EU’s external borders and the Schengen area is a shared responsibility of the Member States, but that the European Union should financially support tools to provide such security, including physical barriers and other mobile and fixed border infrastructure.

As part of an extensive hybrid attack on the regime of Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko, efforts have been made since last spring to send thousands of illegal immigrants from Belarus to Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, most of them as tourists from Iraq.

In Lithuania, more than 4,200 illegal migrants, mostly Iraqi nationals, have been detained by border guards since the Border Guard ordered the return of migrants by August 3, but more than 8,200 have been banned from crossing the border in unauthorized places since then.

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Recently, the situation of illegal migration at the Lithuanian border with Belarus has calmed down and border guards have not had to return any illegal migrants for several days, but since December 13 last year there has been increased pressure on migrants at the Latvian border.