SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said the European Union will press Iraq via its visa policy to resolve the migrant crisis in Lithuania.
Lithuania has seen an unprecedented spike of illegal migration in recent months, with over 4,000 people – mostly Iraqis – stopped after crossing from Belarus.
“In some aspects, the European Union has certain leverage it can use, for example, when it comes to Iraq. Leverage that Lithuania, as an individual country, does not have. Specifically, the visa issuance policy,” Nauseda said on Tuesday, according to Lithuanian national radio and television.
European council president Charles Michel “has assured me that he is ready to use that leverage and will do that in the near future,” he added.
The European Union has accused Belarus of weaponizing migrants, a claim the ex-Soviet country denies.
“To use migrants as a weapon, pushing people against the borders, is unacceptable,” Europe’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in late July.
The 27-nation bloc was also pressing Iraq to help stem the flow of migrants to Belarus.
Officials suspect the influx is being orchestrated by the Belarusian regime in retaliation against EU sanctions, with flights ferrying migrants from Baghdad to Minsk.
Belarusian border guards said Tuesday that some 40 migrants with “bodily injuries”, including women and children, had been turned back by Lithuania and accused the EU state of using “force”.
Lithuanian interior minister Agne Bilotaite signed a decree on Monday instructing border guards to push back migrants trying to cross the border and direct them to border checkpoints or diplomatic representatives.
Baghdad pledged earlier this month to investigate the alleged smuggling of people to Lithuania and has set up a joint committee with the EU to discuss migration matters.
