Sienos Grupė

Below are the numbers of calls for help from groups of people who turned to us in difficult situations. The people who contacted us were from different countries: Syria, India, Iraq, Cuba, Cameroon, Congo, Somalia, Sudan, Afghanistan, Senegal, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, etc. The groups consisted of people of various ages and genders, some groups included young children and pregnant women. The main items we transferred were water, food, warm clothes, shoes, external batteries.

Below are the cases of individual assistance that we provided not only to foreigners and foreigners, but also to their relatives: visits to hospitals or accommodation facilities, housing and job searches, help with things, clothes, tools for newborns and children, food voucher program, accompanying to health centers and state institutions, translation, Lithuanian language lessons, legal assistance. In most cases, this support was continuous.

The data is official, but the authorities do not make them public, well sort of... The State Border Guard Service only provides one day's data on its website and they chage values every day. This presentation of statistics is of little use. The State Data Agency does not publish this data.

The statistics on foreigners' pushbacks are virtually inflated. Cases of large groups of people being pushed back and forth between Lithuanian and Belarussian border are quite common. In those cases, the attempts to cross the border are recorded, hence if a group of 10 people tries to cross the border 5 times, the statistics will show 50 cases of pushbacks. In addition, according to the State Border Guard Service, there are cases where statistics include people who have been spotted close to the border on the Belarusian side, but have not even entered the territory of the Republic of Lithuania. This gives the impression that migration is much larger than in reality.

We register missing persons when we receive requests from their loved ones to help find someone dear to them. Based on the available data, we conclude that public authorities do not follow up and register requests to find missing persons who cross the border irregularly or if such requests are made from foreign countries. The public authorities do not cooperate with us. Interested parties applying through official state channels are not referred to us. We believe that the real number of missing persons may be much higher.

At Sienos Grupė, we use the term “cowboy deportations” (in English slang cowboy refers to dishonest, careless or unqualified behaviour in a business or institution). We “cowboy deportations” to reffer to forced returns cases where border guards carry out deportations in a manner which does not comply with human rights protections enshrined in Lithuanian legislation and international obligations. Some of these examples are: when persons are detained in the middle of the night without being informed of their deportation, when they are sent by car through several EU countries without an proper assessment of their documents, when foreigners are deported just a few hours after being detained, without being given the opportunity to collect their personal belongings, without being given the opportunity to contact relatives in the country of origin, without ensuring that they are fit for the journey, and without being given the possibility to receive medical care and health care in the country of origin. Also, it includes situations when foreigners are forced to sign voluntary return documents and are deported on passenger flights, without complying with the requirements for forced return.