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Women protest in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius against a reception center in the village of Dieveniskes
Photo: Mindaugas Kulbis / AP
In Lithuania, the crisis is coming to a head because of the large number of illegally entered migrants via Belarus.
Several hundred people demonstrated in front of the seat of government in Vilnius against the planned accommodation of the people in the border town of Dieveniskes.
They protested against the project with posters, flags and banners and, according to media reports, also criticized the way the authorities dealt with the local population.
At the beginning of the week, residents in several border towns protested against the construction of new accommodations.
There were roadblocks and fights with the police.
Most recently, hundreds of people had come to Lithuania via Belarus without a permit.
According to official information, more than 3,100 people have already been arrested - 118 of them within 24 hours, as the border guard announced.
The Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko had repeatedly threatened the EU and explicitly Germany as well, to allow people from war zones to pass in response to the sanctions imposed on his country.
Most of the migrants who come to the EU country without a passport and apply for asylum come from Iraq.
"Our main goal and our task is to send these people back to their countries of origin as quickly as possible," said Lithuania's Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite, according to the BNS agency, during a visit to the Druskininkai border station.
This requires safe accommodation for migrants and rapid asylum examination procedures.
EU Commission urges Iraq to tighten flight controls
Meanwhile, the EU is insisting on Iraq to help curb the smuggling of migrants into Lithuania via Belarus.
EU Interior Commissioner Ylva Johansson said in a letter to the member states that Brussels had contacted the Iraqi government so that it could "better control flights to Belarus and allow Iraqi nationals who want to return voluntarily to re-enter".
The EU cannot accept that third countries try to instigate or tolerate »illegal migration«.
EU Foreign Affairs Representative Josep Borrell said on Wednesday that he had held talks with the Iraqi foreign minister about "how the increased number of Iraqi citizens illegally crossing the border from Belarus to Lithuania can be addressed".
One counts on the support of Iraq, so Borrell on Twitter.
An EU spokesman said on Thursday that "a large part" of the migrants smuggled into Lithuania are allegedly not entitled to asylum in the EU.
fek / dpa / AFP
