Getting migrants to Lithuania costs up to 15,000 dollars / Article

Migrants who want to get to Lithuania from Iraq have to pay between 6,000 and 15,000 US dollars for intermediaries of these services, according to information obtained by the Lithuanian public media “LRT”. Rarely do any of the asylum seekers want to stay in Lithuania because their goal is more prosperous European Union countries.

LRT journalists, together with colleagues in Belarus and Iraq, tried to find out how the flow of migrants to Europe is organized.

A new flight from Baghdad to Minsk was recently opened

So far, the main route for the people of the Middle East and Africa has been through southern European countries and the Balkans, but now more and more migrants are choosing Belarus, which not only does not hinder migrants, but even encourages them to go to Lithuania and profit from this illegal business.

“We can offer Belarus, Germany, Lithuania and other countries. From here to Belarus, then 20 minutes to Lithuania. It will cost $ 10,000 a person to travel from Baghdad to Lithuania, ”one of the intermediaries providing the services in Iraq told Iraqi journalists.

For migrants, the journey to Europe via Belarus is much faster and easier, as it is possible to get to Belarus by plane; no risk to life when trying to cross the Mediterranean by boat.

Iraqi Airlines has been operating flights from Baghdad to Minsk since 2017. But this year, since May 10, the flight of the airline “Fly Baghdad” is also flying to Minsk.

A $ 3,000 security deposit is required

The sudden interest of Iraqi tourists in visiting Belarus can be explained by the fact that many do not plan to return to their homeland at all, and Belarus is a bridgehead for them to move to Europe.

Investigation by LRT journalists shows that the regime in Belarus makes money from this business. Iraqis who want to go on a “tourist trip” to Belarus have to pay a $ 3,000 security deposit. If the person does not return to Iraq, the money paid goes to Belarus.

Belarus also earns on hotel, catering and transport services. After arriving in Belarus, migrants are transported to one of Minsk’s hotels, where they stay for a few days. Then they are transported to the Lithuanian border by car and taught how to cross the border.

Risk to safety

One of the migrants told LRT that it took five or six hours to reach the border.

Then the car stopped and the driver said: “Go in that direction and there will be Europe. If you tie straight, you will see a fence that can be easily crossed. On the other side, the car will be waiting for you and take you further. ”

Of course, there was no car on the other side, the migrants froze at night until they were detained by the Lithuanian border guard.

Iraqi Kurdish Fatah says that he did without intermediaries: he bought a plane ticket for a flight from Baghdad to Minsk, but in Minsk he paid a taxi driver about 100 euros to transport him to the Lithuanian border. He knew what to do, because in Lithuania he was waiting for a friend who had already made this trip.

Detained migrants make no secret of the fact that Lithuania is not their destination because they want to move to richer European countries.

“We apologize for having to cross the border, but we have no other way to get to Lithuania legally. We had to take that path, take the risk to get to safety, ”says Iraqi Kurdish Selvan.

CONTEXT:

In the summer of 2021 the number of migrants has increased significantly, which is trying to enter the territory of Lithuania from Belarus. Most migrants are refugees from Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. Lithuanian officials believe that the Belarusian authorities deliberately does not constitute an obstacle to the crossing of the borderto punish Lithuania for supporting the Belarusian opposition and imposing sanctions on the Alexander Lukashenko regime. Lithuania describes such action as the spread of a hybrid war against the European Union.

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