Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said in an exclusive interview with EURACTIV that official entities such as airlines and travel agencies participate in organized human trafficking through Belarus and may face sanctions.
Earlier on Monday (July 12), he and EU Chief Diplomat Joseph Borrell accused Belarus of using illegal immigration as a “political weapon to put pressure on the EU due to EU sanctions against Belarus. “.
“We need to be very strict on regimes that use this type of weapon, first of all sanctions,” Landsbergis told EURACTIV on the sidelines of the European Union Foreign Affairs Committee in Brussels, saying that this may include a fifth sanctions program or more broadly. Departmental sanctions.
“We didn’t see the actual wave of migrants. They fled for their lives and chose a raft that actually endangered their lives, but what we saw was travel agencies selling tickets to the European border, not such expensive tickets—— This is a very different situation,” Landsbergs said.
This year, nearly 1,700 immigrants from Belarus illegally entered Lithuania, an EU country, of which more than 1,000 were in July alone. Border service in Lithuania.
Half of them claimed to be Iraqi citizens, while the others were from Congo, Cameroon, Guinea, Iran and Afghanistan.
It said that in the past six months, the number of illegal immigrants in Lithuania was 21 times that of the entire year of 2020.
When asked why he thinks Minsk has decided to use immigration in particular to retaliate against Lithuania’s outspokenness of the Lukashenko regime, Landsbergis said that although this will be “one of the most sensitive issues for Europeans”, He called this situation “unprecedented.”
“The difference between Lukashenko’s use of refugees as weapons and the previous refugee crisis in Europe is that in this case, we have official institutions involved,” the Lithuanian Foreign Minister warned.
“We must understand that there are official airlines that transfer people from Baghdad to Istanbul or from Istanbul to Minsk, and travel agencies are registered in multiple countries, which means that there may be official agencies involved in human trafficking,” he added.
“Participation in human trafficking is illegal everywhere-if we can trace who is doing it, especially if it is an official agency, then it will be sanctioned,” Landsbergs said , And added that such a step is still in the consideration stage of foreign ministers.
So far, both Minsk and Moscow have denied any such actions.
Lukashenko said last week that his government will not close its borders with neighboring countries and will not become a “hospital place” for migrants from the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
He added that these immigrants did not want to come to Belarus, but wanted to come to “enlightened, warm and comfortable Europe.”
Lithuania began building a 550-kilometer-long barbed wire barrier on its border with Belarus on Friday.
Frontex, the EU border agency, said on Monday that it will send more officials, patrol cars and experts to talk to immigrants arriving in Lithuania to gather information about criminal networks.
“The situation at the border between Lithuania and Belarus remains worrying. I have decided to conduct a rapid border intervention in Lithuania to strengthen the external borders of the European Union,” Frontex executive director Fabrice Legri said in a statement.
Leggeri later told EU officials and legislators that Frontex was preparing to take migrants out of Lithuania through commercial and charter flights to provide services to those who did not obtain refugee status in Vilnius.
Landsbergis stated that the participation of the European Commission and Frontex not only needs to protect the external borders of the EU, but also to provide humanitarian assistance to immigrants and facilitate their return or resettlement.
When asked by EURACTIV whether he was worried that Minsk would help Western troops withdraw from Afghanistan for more targeted migration flows, Landsbergis said that because there have been cases of Afghans illegally crossing the border with Lithuania, “the route already exists”.
“As far as we know, this route is not only facilitated by Belarus, but also by Russia-this is an increasingly worrying issue, because we know that as Western troops are leaving Afghanistan, we have already witnessed it. The possibility of a large wave of immigration. With the assistance of Tajikistan and Russia,” Landsbergis said.
“They can reach the European border through Lithuania, even Latvia, Estonia, even Finland and other countries bordering Russia,” he added.
“The information in Europe must be short and accurate-those who enter the EU illegally cannot obtain refugee status, and they will be sent back to their country of origin,” Landsbergis said.
