Lithuania: Forced out or locked up – Refugees and migrants abused and abandoned

In 2021, thousands of people began arriving at Lithuania’s borders with Belarus with the intention of seeking asylum in the EU. Lithuanian authorities responded by adopting laws that curtailed the right to seek asylum, codified arbitrary detention and led to numerous human rights violations. This report documents the multiple human rights violations carried out by Lithuanian authorities in 2021-2022. Such abuses continue and stand in stark contrast to the benevolence displayed toward people fleeing from Ukraine in the same year, revealing the double standards applied by the EU and its member states in their treatment of migrants and refugees based on their race, ethnicity, nationality or origins.

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