Lithuania turns back five Africans on Belarusian border, NGO says they were seeking asylum

VILNIUS - Border guards at the Medininkai border checkpoint on Lithuania's border with Belarus have turned back five Africans who were seeking asylum, an NGOs says.

According to the State Border Guard Service, the five foreigners arrived at Medininkai late Sunday night.

"Document checks revealed that the Sudanese and Kenyan citizens - two men, two women and one minor - were trying to enter Lithuania. They had passports of their countries, but they did not have Schengen visas and did not meet the conditions for entry into the Schengen area, so such persons could not be admitted," Giedrius Misutis, spokesman for the SBGS, told BNS on Monday, adding that the foreigners were ordered to return to Belarus and did so "without any major incidents or conflicts".

For its part, Sienos Grupe, an NGO, claims that the foreigners were seeking asylum, but border guards allegedly refused to accept their applications.

"Although the Lithuanian authorities regularly state that border guards have the competence to make sure that people are not seeking asylum, we are faced with the exact opposite situation," the NGO's head Mantautas Sulskas told BNS. "This time, the asylum seekers arrived exactly as they are told to do when they are turned back in the forest, and they arrived at the border checkpoint."

Sienos Grupe has received an audio recording from the Sudanese and Kenyan nationals in which one of the women is asking for asylum in English, repeating the word "asylum", but the man who is talking to her says he does not understand what she is saying.

BNS has also heard the recording, but cannot independently confirm its authenticity.

Misutis says "there was no explicit request (for asylum - BNS)".

"I haven't heard the recording, it is not clear where it was made, under what circumstances, under what conditions. We treat their non-entry into Lithuania as legitimate," he said.

Lithuania began turning back foreigners trying to enter the country illegally in 2021 following an influx of migrants from Belarus. Since then, Lithuanian border guards have turned back migrants more than 23,100 times. Some of them have attempted to cross the border illegally more than once.

Officials encourage people who wish to apply for asylum in Lithuania to do so through legal channels. One of them is at a border checkpoint.