The Lithuanian-Belarussian border is affected by the our bodies of migrants, who’ve died making an attempt to go into the EU, human rights teams have alleged.
Sienos Grupe, a Lithuanian humanitarian organisation, has accrued an inventory of round 30 folks, whose households misplaced touch with them on Europe’s japanese frontier.
The workforce is operating arduous to lend a hand family members to find their lacking kin, piecing in combination data and grimly scouring refugee camps, hospitals and morgues.
Much of what’s taking place slips underneath the radar, they are saying, as migrants and their households are steadily too scared to return ahead, fearing a run-in with the legislation — and the transience of folks at the transfer makes it doubly tough for them to hunt lend a hand.
‘No access zone’
Complicating their effort is all the blackout by way of Lithuanian government within the border zone, which prevents humanitarian teams and reporters from tracking the realm.
“The problem is we simply don’t know”, Vakarė, a volunteer at Sienos Grupe who requested that we now not use their complete title, informed Euronews. “There’s this entire darkened invisible line that you’re not supposed to go past”.
“No-one knows what’s happening inside”.
People crossing the border have additionally accused Polish border forces of dragging useless our bodies to the Belarussian aspect, who merely bury the stays — a declare strongly refuted by way of Poland.
“Migrants are meaningless, faceless people to most, they’re not even [considered as] human,” stated Vakarė.
“Nobody’s very passionate about making sure their bodies aren’t left to rot in the forest”.
Known as Europe’s forgotten migration disaster, Lithuania, Poland and Belarus have driven migrants from side to side throughout every different’s frontiers since 2020, in a state of affairs likened to ping-pong.
Vilnius and Brussels accuse Minsk of weaponising migration -– inundating the EU’s border with migrants as a type of hybrid struggle – whilst Lithuanian border guards were again and again accused of violently pushing migrants again into Belarus.
In the period in-between, folks endure.
The border house is a dank, darkish wooded area, full of swamps, this is often buffeted by way of difficult climate prerequisites, and subzero temperatures in wintry weather.
Meanwhile, migrants — most commonly coming from the Middle East, Africa or Asia — steadily do not understand how brutal wintry weather prerequisites can also be within the area, arriving with out right kind clothes or provides.
Belarus has even been accused of pushing some migrants around the Lithuania border barefoot.
“They don’t understand what harsh winters we have here,” defined Vakarė.
“Everything is cold, slippery and dangerous. If you get injured, even if it’s just a small one, it can mean you are completely unable to cope”.
“People can get in hassle very rapid.”
At least three migrants have lost their legs to frostbite in recent months, with many more suffering debilitating injuries to their hands and feet that will be with them forever.
In January, Sienos Groupe identified the body of one migrant, who was found dead in a river by a nature watcher in August, after receiving desperate messages from his wife in Sri Lanka.
It was what the NGO said they “feared would come true”: the first confirmed case of a migrant dying in Lithuanian territory.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Lithuania’s Interior Ministry told Euronews authorities have “no information referring to useless migrants” at the border with Belarus.
They said the body found in the Neris river was of a Sri Lankan national, but did not confirm whether they were an “abnormal migrant”.
An investigation is ongoing.
‘Agonising’
For those who have lost loved ones, the uncertainty is agonising.
“As a family, my brother’s disappearance has left us feeling destroyed, and completely shattered,” said one relative of a missing person, who wished to stay anonymous for privacy reasons. “We do not know what to do to find him”.
“His wife and two little children in Syria are desperate for some news about him.”
Another woman was called from her husband’s phone by the Lithuanian Border Guard in June, who ominously said they’d found his suitcase and valuables strewn in the forest.
During the border crossing, the man reportedly told his companions to leave him behind and that he wanted to call the border guards, as a pain in his foot made walking unbearable.
His whereabouts remain unknown.
“Every single day I get a message about a new missing person,” said Vakarė. “We don’t have answers for these people. We don’t have bodies. We don’t have their stories.”
In January, Lithuania’s government approved controversial legislation to formalise pushbacks as an official policy.
It claims the exceptional situation on the border with Belarus justifies the law, though critics have pointed out it violates international law by denying people the right to asylum.
“Every single death is a fault of their policy,” Vakarė said. “The state pretends the bodies aren’t there, that they are humane and doing everything they can, but it’s still a spot of dirt on their reputation”.
“The bodies are very, very visible proof of the failure of the entire strategy.”
