Lithuania’s State Border Guard Service (VSAT) has found several tunnels used to smuggle irregular migrants from Belarus into Lithuania, LRT reports. Speaking in an interview with 15min, VSAT commander Rustamas Liubajevas said that migrants were increasingly using tunnels and caves to cross the border. VSAT discovered the first tunnels in 2025. Digging such tunnels would…
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda has proposed stricter rules on migration, BNS reports. Under the proposal, labour migrants would be required to leave Lithuania for at least six months after every two years of work. Also, the labour migrant quota would include not only new migrants but also those already in Lithuania. Skirmantas Bikelis, senior research…
Lithuania may impose temporary border controls with Latvia due to a surge in the number of irregular migrants arriving from Belarus via Latvia, Interior Minister Martynas Katelynas warned, LRT reported. He insisted that Lithuania cannot become a “transit country that anyone can pass through” and urged Latvia to take more responsibility for the problem, LRT and BNS…
Lithuania’s incoming new prime minister, Mindaugas Sinkevicius, chairman of the country’s ruling Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP), has presented his proposed cabinet of ministers to President Gitanas Nauseda, BNS reports. LSDP has nominated nine ministers to the new coalition government: Lukas Alsys for culture minister, Ieva Andriulaityte for environment minister, Kestutis Budrys for foreign minister,…
Following the entry into force of the EU’s New Pact on Migration and Asylum, human rights groups in Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland urged their governments to review migrant pushback practices on the border with Belarus, BNS reported. In a joint statement, Latvia’s I Want to Help Refugees (GPB), Lithuania’s Sienos Grupe, and Poland’s Association for…
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda rejected suggestions that relations with Belarus were improving, LRT reported. He said that there had been no positive changes on Belarusian balloon incursions, illegal migration, or participation in Russia’s war against Ukraine. There were thus no grounds to ease sanctions on Belarus, Nauseda stated. Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys said that…
The Latvian government has extended the enhanced border protection regime on the border with Belarus for another six months until 30 June 2026, LSM reports. The regime, which is in force in certain parishes and municipalities along the border, was due to expire at the end of 2025. The enhanced control regime was declared due…
Poland’s President Karol Nawrocki will meet with his Latvian counterpart, Edgars Rinkevics, during a working visit to Latvia on 11 December 2025, LSM reports. The two presidents will discuss security issues, specifically the war in Ukraine, migratory pressure from Belarus, and the situation in the Baltic Sea. Also, Nawrocki will meet with Latvian Prime Minister…
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) urges Lithuania to reconsider its policy of turning back irregular migrants at the border with Belarus, BNS reports. Annika Sandlund, UNHCR representative to the Nordic and Baltic countries, said that Lithuania should review its emergency legislation that allows pushbacks. Even though irregular migrants were being used for…
