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Migrants who made it to Lithuania - in the Rudninkai refugee camp, 38 kilometers south of Vilnius
Photo:
Mindaugas Kulbis / AP
"Please my friend.
Please, ”begs a young man.
He is standing in the tall grass in front of four officers in camouflage uniforms in balaclavas, they have a dog with them.
One of the Lithuanian border guards has a baton in his hand and says: “Go back to Belarus.
Do you understand that?
Go back. "The man calls:" I don't want to go back. "
The pictures come from the Belarusian-Lithuanian border.
The video is only a few seconds long and comes from a group of refugees.
Five young men, all Iraqis, 20 to 32 years old, by their own account, shared it.
They have been waiting for hours in no man's land at the border, never coming forward and not coming back.
In a video call, the men show employees of the "Alarm Phone" initiative how they are stuck: the Lithuanian security forces on one side and the Belarusian security forces on the other have taken up position at their border pillars only a few meters away.
The refugees say they have no more water or food, they are soaked from the rain, they are freezing.
One shot shows them setting clothes on fire to keep themselves warm:
“Alarm Phone” actually helps refugees who are in need on the Mediterranean Sea.
But now the situation on the Belarusian-Lithuanian border is deteriorating, people are asking for help here too.
This week, the Lithuanian border guards began to turn away refugees who want to enter the country illegally via Belarus.
This intensifies the power struggle that the Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko has been looking for with the neighboring country for weeks.
He has announced that he will close parts of his border.
A video from the Lithuanian Internet portal 15min.lt shows how security forces with shields and helmets took up position at a border pillar in front of refugees.
"Go back," says a voice in English, presumably a Lithuanian border guard.
A Belarusian official then said to the migrants in Russian: “Why are you standing around here?
Go forward, there. ”He points in the direction of Lithuania.
Lukashenko has been giving migrants a new escape route to the EU for a few weeks now.
It is safer because it crosses a green border by land, often there is not even a fence, just fields, meadows and forests.
People come to the Belarusian capital Minsk via Istanbul, but mainly via Baghdad.
There you can get Belarusian tourist visas at the airport, usually for seven days, so you can move around freely.
A trip like this costs up to 1,000 euros per person, several refugees tell SPIEGEL in refugee shelters.
These "travel packages" are organized through agencies, especially in Iraq.
They are working with Belarusian authorities and state providers, which is good business for the regime.
Some of the refugees in Belarus then find their way to the EU themselves, while others let smugglers bring them to Lithuania.
Cost point: another hundreds, sometimes thousands of euros.
Very few migrants meet Belarusian border guards on their way to Lithuania, as they say.
Revenge on the back of the refugees
According to the Lithuanian authorities, more than 4,100 people have crossed the border illegally since the beginning of the year.
They come mainly from Iraq, but also Syria and African countries.
The small EU country Lithuania with around 2.8 million inhabitants is not prepared for so many migrants.
For comparison: In 2020, 81 people were arrested who illegally crossed the border.
Many of them were refugees seeking protection from the violence and oppression of the Lukashenko regime.
Lithuania supports the Belarusian opposition, including granting protection to ex-presidential candidate Svetlana Tichanovskaya.
In an interview with DER SPIEGEL, she described Lukashenko's actions as "perfidious and disgusting," saying that he wanted to take revenge on Vilnius on the back of the refugees.
The Lithuanian government itself speaks of “hybrid warfare” not only against its own country, but against the entire EU. Vilnius has also expanded patrols with the help of the European border agency Frontex. The authorities emphasize that the refugees would be turned away before entering Lithuania. It's difficult to verify, the five Iraqis told Alarm Phone that they had asked for asylum in Lithuania. They also reported that they were beaten and stun guns were used on them.
The spokesman for the Lithuanian border guard, Rokas Pukinskas, rejects this: "We did not use force," he told SPIEGEL.
He confirmed that officials "returned" the five to Belarus on Saturday lunchtime.
When asked why the men had been stuck since Friday morning for over a day, he said: "The Belarusian side is not cooperating with us on the refugee issue."
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Cynical game with human life
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According to the Lithuanian border guards, 250 refugees were turned away on Saturday night alone.
It is said that only children and the sick are allowed into the country.
Lithuania's Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis announced that Iraq wanted to suspend all flights to Minsk.
Just a few days ago, Baghdad had doubled the number of connections - and that after a visit by Landsbergis to Iraq.
Now airplanes are only supposed to bring people back to their homeland, said the aviation authority in Baghdad.
According to Foreign Minister Landsbergis, Minsk is already holding talks about further visa facilitation with Pakistan and several West and North African countries.
It is unclear where the five Iraqis are now, how they are doing.
"Alarm Phone" had informed the Red Cross, Frontex and the UNHCR refugee agency about the situation of the men.
The initiative speaks of a »cynical game with human life«.
The Belarusian regime wants to "gain political capital and influence through these produced border crises."
One of the Iraqis answered his cell phone briefly on Saturday evening: “We are in Belarus. I can't speak. ”Since then, he's no longer available.