Deputy Minister: Lithuania will not apply all Frontex recommendations, they are not binding
“It simply came to our notice then. (…) We, as a member state, will evaluate them. On the other hand, they are not imperative for us to have an action plan to implement them quickly, they are of a recommendatory nature, ”press policy said at a conference on Tuesday.
He stated that the recommendations would be taken into account “to the extent that this is not inconsistent with our policy of reversal, in the case of, in one thing, a hybrid attack, (…) to the extent that it is inconsistent with the state of emergency and to the extent of an emergency”.
According to the Ministry of the Interior, the border guards received the recommendations of the Frontex Fundamental Rights Bureau before Christmas.
The Frotex mission may be terminated
The news portal Delfi announced on Tuesday the plans of the office to provide recommendations to Lithuania.
According to him, this is done after gathering evidence that Lithuanian border guards use a collective repatriation of migrants – in a practice that is contrary to international law and the European Convention on Human Rights, and the possibility of applying for asylum at an official border checkpoint does not really work.
Possible recommendations include the proposal to send migrants who have crossed the border illegally not to return to Belarus, but to transport the border guards themselves to border crossing points where they can legally apply for asylum.
According to the Deputy Minister, such a recommendation cannot be implemented in the country.
“If we transported everyone to the border checkpoints on the green border, it would be the same open border policy that is not possible in Lithuania today,” he said.
If we transported everyone to the border checkpoints on the green border, it would be the same open border policy that is not possible in Lithuania today.
Asked whether such recommendations, with minimal collective rejection, could change the European Union’s approach to Lithuania’s reversal policy, Abramavičius called for a position from the European Commission that is “as favorable as possible for Lithuania to date”.
According to the Deputy Minister, the worst thing that could happen at the moment if the recommendations were not implemented is the suspension of the Frontex mission.
“Considering perhaps these proposals, if Lithuania does not imperatively accept all of them, perhaps Frontex may be suspended,” he said.
Changes in EU legislation
A. Abramavičius also stated that Lithuania has received such recommendations because it clearly works.
“Transparency, well, presupposes the right legal environment for that. “If we look at our neighbor, Poland, where the Frontex mission is not scheduled to work, they do not have such recommendations,” he said.
The Deputy Minister said that some of the recommendations, with medical services for migrants and their accommodation, have already been implemented.
The Frontex office, which carried out the monitoring, also states that a system for identifying vulnerable persons is not in place in Lithuania. According to the office, it is particularly worrying that marginalized migrants may include severely ill people, parents with young children, seniors, pregnant women, and victims of trafficking.
According to A. Abramavičius, it is planned to organize trainings for border guards in order to better and properly identify vulnerable persons. However, he stressed that it is not planned to allow all children into the country.
All categories, not spontaneous, its spontaneous, not sis slut, and sis unaccompanied minors. This stimulus unaccompanied minors.
“We really can’t accept everyone because ssissme spontaneous streama and separate specific unaccompanied minors. This is an incentive for family and minority migration, ”he said.
The politician also said that the EU is currently discussing general changes in migration, but decisions in this area are not quick.
“Those legal acts are being written now,” said A. Abramavičius.
He also stated that he did not think that the recommendations of the Frontex office could damage Lithuania’s reputation.
Since the beginning of August, more than 8,000 Lithuanian border guards have turned away. migrants, sometimes it can be the same people who have tried to cross the border repeatedly.
These people are referred for asylum to border checkpoints or the embassy in Minsk.
Some critics say these actions could be seen as expulsions, in violation of international law. Officials claim that they do not expel migrants, but do not allow them into Lithuanian territory.
More than 4.2 thousand people entered Lithuania this year. migrants. Lithuania and other Western countries blame the Minsk regime for organizing migrant flows and call it hybrid aggression.
An emergency situation was declared on the Lithuanian border with Belarus until mid-January.