Lithuania: Detained migrants subjected to beatings, abuse and racism, claims Amnesty
Lithuanian authorities have arbitrarily detained thousands of migrants in prison-like centres where they have been subjected to beatings, abuse and racism, according to Amnesty International.
A report by the human rights group says refugees and migrants have been held for months in squalid conditions, denied access to fair asylum procedures and subjected to other violations — in the hope that they would "voluntarily" leave the country.
The treatment is in stark contrast to the welcome and generosity with which people fleeing the war in Ukraine have been greeted in the EU, Amnesty says. It accuses the European Union of tacitly condoning Lithuania's behaviour which it says flouts international law.
The group interviewed hundreds of people who it says were detained unlawfully after travelling from countries including Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Nigeria, Syria and Sri Lanka.
Many people reported being beaten, insulted and subjected to racially-motivated intimidation and harassment by guards, according to the campaign group. Access to sanitary facilities and healthcare was insufficient, it adds.
"In Iraq, we hear about human rights and women’s rights in Europe. But here there are no rights," said a Yazidi woman who was detained in the Medininkai detention centre, near the border with Belarus. It is one of two such centres where Amnesty interviewed detainees.
Lithuania's government did not immediately respond to Euronews' request to comment on these claims.
Amid an influx of people arriving at the Belarusian border, in July 2021 Lithuania’s parliament approved the mass detention of migrants and curbed their right of appeal.
The move was meant to deter high numbers crossing the border with Belarus but stirred an
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