In Lithuania, the inhabitants of the small town of the Divine continue to actively oppose plans to accommodate illegal migrants in their city, who have recently been entering the country across the Belarusian border.
On Friday, another protest took place, during which residents took to the city streets with various posters, waiting for the arrival of officials.
The refugee center is located in dormitories
With posters and blocking roads, the Divine residents protested against the government’s plans to accommodate about 500 migrants in the former school’s dormitory building. The town itself has about 600 inhabitants.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Minister of the Interior has acknowledged that the construction of the fence along the Lithuanian-Belarusian border is not progressing due to the lack of barbed wire, and Lithuania has requested assistance from several foreign countries.
The divine neighborhood is sometimes referred to as the “Lithuanian caecum” because it is surrounded by the territory of Belarus.
Photo: Screenshot from “LRT.lt”
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The divine city near the Lithuanian-Belarusian border was visited on Friday by Deputy Minister of the Interior Agnes Bilotaite Vitaly Dmitrijev and Commissioner General of Police Renat Požela. They were greeted by more than 100 people with Lithuanian flags and posters gathered at the former Dormitory of the School of Technology and Business. It is planned to temporarily establish a refugee accommodation center there.
Citizens are worried about their safety
The posters of people who took to the streets of the city on Friday had inscriptions in Lithuanian and Polish. “Do not violate the rights of the Divine people!” and “Listen to the people of the Divine!”
Several tractors decorated with Lithuanian flags were also placed next to the dormitory building, but patriotic music was playing from the cars.
Large numbers of illegal migrants continue to flow across the Lithuanian-Belarusian border, which makes it necessary to accommodate these people. Although the Ministry of the Interior states that the area of the refugee center will be fenced and guarded by the Public Security Service, local people have expressed concerns about their own and their relatives’ safety.
At the beginning of the week, a group of residents of the town picketed at the Ministry of the Interior building in Vilnius, and the action against the accommodation of illegal migrants also took place on Thursday, some of its participants also stayed overnight at the scene of the action.
The locals don’t want to hear about the compromise
Adviser to the Minister of the Interior Lina Laurinaitīte-Griģiene said that currently the former school dormitory building is intended to accommodate only families with children whose living conditions in the border guard sections are not suitable, therefore there is hope that a friendly agreement will be reached with local people.
However, after today’s events in the city it does not look like it at all. Several residents have expressed readiness not to leave the surroundings of the former school dormitory building until the decision to establish the center is changed.
During the visit, the officials offered the residents a solution – to accommodate migrants in the town only until September 1, and then to decide on accommodation elsewhere. However, residents responded to such an offer with the word “no!” and “shame!” chanting.
After the meeting, the officials admitted that people do not seem to want to hear the compromise offers, but are ready to resign only if the decision is changed. The police general also tried to dispel the fears of the population and said that as many police forces would be deployed in the city as the people themselves wanted.
Migrants cannot levitate in the air
It was reiterated that it had been agreed that security would be taken care of by both the Public Security Service and criminal police officers in civilian clothing, but the number was not mentioned. Human resistance is expected to continue and no compromises have been reached. Nevertheless, work on setting up a refugee accommodation center is ongoing.
The head of the Lithuanian government, Ingrida Šimonīte, has called on the population to understand that migrants need to be accommodated somewhere while their asylum applications are being processed.
“Immigrants cannot be levitated in the air, they must be placed somewhere in any case. Care must be taken to provide for basic needs that respect their dignity as human beings.
Procedures need to be put in place, refugee status issues need to be resolved – although the decision to grant it is usually negative, as in most cases no basis can be found for such a request.
There are currently 2,300 migrants in about 15 places in Lithuania, mostly from the Middle East and Africa.
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 a hybrid war against the European Union.
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