From Pabradė to the Vilnius hotel: the courts are opening the door for migrants to freedom
Lithuanian courts emphasize that the right to justice for migrants must be guaranteed even during an emergency, as this is guaranteed by the Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights.
Critics warn that easier release of foreigners could disrupt the migrant deterrence system and threaten to turn Lithuania into a popular route for illegal migration to Germany.
The detention was allowed to be challenged
The law passed by the Seimas in the summer stipulates that asylum seekers may be accommodated for up to six months without declaring their right to free movement due to the massive influx of aliens during declared emergencies. The law did not provide for an appeal procedure against such a measure.
As it shows 15min access to justice, home affairs systems and some courts of first instance initially took the position that migrants detained at the border with Belarus have no grounds to go to court for such a restriction of liberty.
However, in October, a ten-year court ruling of a three-judge panel of the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania announced that migrants’ requests to release them from detention must be considered.
According to the panel of judges, the law established a “disregard for legal uncertainty” by failing to provide for any clear “legal review mechanism” for a six-month restriction on movement.
Court: law creates ‘legal uncertainty’
After assessing the asylum seekers detained at the border in July, the panel of judges instructed the Druskininkai court to examine her complaint and assess whether the accommodation at the border checkpoint does not give the right to free movement can be assessed as de facto detention. By law, people cannot be detained for more than 48 hours without a court order.
“Applicants must be effectively guaranteed the right to judicial protection in order to verify the validity and legality of the measure applied to it – without granting the right to free movement in the territory of the Republic of Lithuania (…). The state-level state of emergency declared by the government does not constitute grounds for restricting the right to defense, ”the order, a copy of which was received 15min.
The practice introduced by this order paves the way for migrant courts to be released from detention before the end of the six-month period.
Obtained permission to leave the available
15min data show that such a situation has already been taken advantage of by a 26-year-old Iraqi citizen held at the Alien Registration Center in Pabradė.
I represent a lawyer, a man is in court in Švenčionys in October, complaining that his living conditions are equivalent to “illegal torture”. Initially, it was kept in a tent, and in the second half of October it was moved to a container name, but even there the living conditions are “not suitable because there is little space, it is difficult to sleep”.
The migrant stated that when his health was deteriorating, he, with the help of a lawyer rented by a lawyer in Vilnius, asked that he be allowed to live there “in dignified and more comfortable conditions”.
There are no circumstances in the case that suggest that the alien may pose a threat to state security
The judge of the Švenčionys Chamber of the Vilnius Regional District Court decided to satisfy this request. She stated that the man does not pose a threat to state security and public order, because his identity is established, he has documents, cooperates in good faith with state institutions.
“There are no circumstances in the case that suggest that the alien may pose a threat to the security of the state and public order, therefore his request must be granted and an alternative measure of detention to be granted to the alien,” the court decision he read. 15min.
The court stated that it would suffice for the Iraqi to report his whereabouts twice a week to the Aliens Registration Center. This court decision has not yet entered into force, it can still be appealed.
A collapsing deterrent system?
Restriction of the freedom of foreigners, which does not allow them to go to Germany or another European country, in Lithuania is based on the need to deter the flow of illegal migration.
Laurynas Kasčiūnas, Chairman of the National Security and Defense Committee of the Seimas, says that the easing of restrictions on movement may encourage illegal migration from Belarus and Lithuania to Western Europe.
Elementary logic says that the alleged rent of the premises will simply become fictitious
He also said he saw a risk that renting the premises could become fictitious.
“I will not comment on the specific case or the court decision. However, I can say of Parliament’s reasons why the six-month detention rule was introduced into law: without it, the deterrent system would not work, as it would allow illegal migrants to continue to Germany, France or other destinations. ” 15min said L. Kasčiūnas.
According to him, “elementary logic says that the alleged rent of premises will simply become fictitious, if only it is necessary to leave the migrant centers and continue, it will be enough to go to Lithuania illegally and the goal has been achieved”.
“In this case, Lithuania will have only one acceptable way to go: to mobilize more forces on the border, to rapidly implement a physical barrier and to implement a reversal policy even more effectively, otherwise Lithuania will become a new illegal migration route, with thousands of unclear people territory to Western Europe, and the Belarussian regime has achieved its hostile goals, ”said L. Kasčiūnas.
The crisis of illegal migration on the Lithuanian border with Belarus peaked in mid-summer, when people from the Middle East and Africa, attracted by the regime of Alexander Lukashenko, began to cross the border into Lithuania en masse.
Initially, Lithuanian officials detained and accommodated them, allowing them to apply for asylum. With the drastic increase in flows, migrants detained in the border area have been pushed back to Belarus since the beginning of August. This tactic to manage the crisis, but a lot of tension at the border.