Lithuanian authorities have arbitrarily detained 1000's of migrants in prison-like centres the place they've been subjected to beatings, abuse and racism, in line with Amnesty Worldwide.
A report by the human rights group says refugees and migrants have been held for months in squalid circumstances, denied entry to truthful asylum procedures and subjected to different violations — within the hope that they might "voluntarily" depart the nation.
The remedy is in stark distinction to the welcome and generosity with which individuals fleeing the battle in Ukraine have been greeted within the EU, Amnesty says. It accuses the European Union of tacitly condoning Lithuania's behaviour which it says flouts worldwide regulation.
The group interviewed tons of of people that it says have been detained unlawfully after travelling from nations together with Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Nigeria, Syria and Sri Lanka.
Many individuals reported being crushed, insulted and subjected to racially-motivated intimidation and harassment by guards, in line with the marketing campaign group. Entry to sanitary services and healthcare was inadequate, it provides.
"In Iraq, we hear about human rights and girls’s rights in Europe. However right here there aren't any rights," stated a Yazidi girl who was detained within the Medininkai detention centre, close to the border with Belarus. It's one in all two such centres the place Amnesty interviewed detainees.
Lithuania's authorities didn't instantly reply to Euronews' request to touch upon these claims.
Complaints comply with mass detention regulation
Amid an inflow of individuals arriving on the Belarusian border, in July 2021 Lithuania’s parliament permitted the mass detention of migrants and curbed their proper of attraction.
The transfer was meant to discourage excessive numbers crossing the border with Belarus however stirred an outcry.
Amnesty says 1000's of individuals, together with many who're in want of worldwide safety, have been detained for extended intervals and denied correct entry to judicial procedures.
“I need to thank Lithuania for receiving us... However right here they don’t deal with us properly. This can be a jail, not a camp. All over the place I look there may be barbed wire, why? I'm not a felony; I'm a refugee,” the group quotes a Syrian man as saying when he was interviewed in March.
It claims that 1000's of others have been violently pushed again throughout the border to Belarus, the place they haven't any likelihood of searching for safety.
Tons of of individuals at Medininkai "sleep in containers on a soccer pitch", Amnesty claims. Those that spoke to its researchers have been in a state of worry as a result of guards' "aggressive behaviour", it says. Detainees who took half in protests have been crushed and subjected to pepper spray and taser weapons.
Amnesty says it has seen video footage during which a bunch of black ladies have been compelled outdoors into the chilly, half-naked with arms tied, and locked in a container. This was not an remoted incident, it provides.
Different detainees have been positioned in isolation and bitten by canine in the event that they tried to flee, the group claims.
Lithuania has stated will it not search to increase detention past the present restrict of 12 months, Amnesty notes, however says the authorities have but to element how they'll treatment violations dedicated.
EU's 'two-tier system'
The group blames the European Union for permitting a "two-tier system" to develop in latest months.
“Whereas Lithuania has rightly prolonged a heat welcome to tens of 1000's of individuals fleeing Ukraine, the expertise of the detainees we spoke with couldn't be extra totally different. This raises critical considerations about institutional racism embedded inside Lithuania’s migration system,” stated Nils Muižnieks, Amnesty's Europe Regional Director.
The human rights group accuses the European Fee of the "tacit endorsement" of what it calls Lithuania's try to "legalise" pushbacks, computerized detention and the denial of asylum by means of home laws — in a "blatant" disregard for EU and worldwide regulation.
The European Border and Coast Guard (Frontex) can be accused of constant to assist Lithuanian border guards in actions which will contribute to human rights violations.
"The European Fee nonetheless has not taken any motion to convey Lithuania’s laws into line with EU regulation. For so long as the European Fee stands idle, it sends a message to member states that EU legal guidelines will be violated with impunity',” stated Amnesty's Nils Muižnieks.
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