Communist control is still strong in Lithuania: The treatment of migrants shows indifference to evil

 "At the end of October, only 300 of the 4.2 thousand migrants who arrived illegally from Belarus last year remained in Lithuania. Since the beginning of the year, about two and a half thousand migrants have fled or left their places of accommodation, having obtained the right to move. This year, 640 foreigners voluntarily left for their countries of origin, asylum was granted to 139 foreigners.

 

    The reaction of the Lithuanian authorities to the influx of migrants was shameful, cruel and unjustifiable. The government measures applied to migrants, their forcible deportation to camps and deprivation of liberty, followed by the reversal policy, were against European Union (EU) directives, international law and the European Convention on Human Rights.

 

    The Minister of Internal Affairs, Agnė Bilotaitė, played the first violin, demonizing migrants, creating the impression that they are volunteers of Lukashenka's and Russia's hybrid war seeking to harm Lithuania, and not refugees from the war zone, looking for political shelter or a chance to live better. Hybrid attacks should be curbed with the strictest measures.

 

    Such a reaction was partly understandable in the first months of the influx, when migrants flew to Minsk on special flights, and Belarusian officials accompanied them to the Lithuanian border and helped them cross it. Even then it was clear, or at least it should have been clear, that these migrants did not care about Lithuania at all, but Western Europe, so that under ideal conditions they would have crossed Lithuania in a few hours and traveled far.

 

    I have no doubt that Islamophobia and racism played a significant role in determining this shameful policy. We don't want to see darker-skinned people in Lithuania who are not Europeans and are not nominal Christians.

 

    It is not without reason that international organizations talk about "institutional racism rooted in the migration system". Instead of fighting against such prejudices against European values, the authorities encouraged them with their silence and incessant talk about hybrid attacks. Back in mid-October, Bilotaitė complained that "EU law does not allow us to effectively defend ourselves against the threat posed by authoritarian regimes, so we solve the issue of our security and that of the entire EU with national measures."

 

    The efforts of migrants and refugees to seek a better, safer life are not directly linked to the intentions of authoritarian regimes to endanger national security. It is not fair to try to impose such thinking. So far this year, more than 40 thousand people traveled from France to the United Kingdom (UK) in small boats. Based on Bilotaitė's logic, one would have to ask what kind of authoritarian regime encourages people to invade the UK in order to destabilize it.

 

    Muammar Gaddafi was killed a long time ago, Iran's influence does not reach that far, even the "all-powerful" FSB could not organize such a large-scale movement of people. Spain's response has been subdued as migrants sometimes pour en masse into Ceuta, an autonomous Spanish city in Africa on the Strait of Gibraltar. Madrid does not call it a hybrid attack, does not talk about the intentions of a foreign state.

 

    Lithuanian and UK organizations and politicians react differently to these challenges. Last week, UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman came under fire for suggesting that southern England was facing an "invasion" of illegal migrants. Charities criticized the use of the word "invasion", saying it was "appalling, wrong and dangerous".

 

    Conservative MP Roger Gale said the use of such "inflammatory words" was "totally unacceptable" and could encourage reactionary sections of British society to "resort to violence". Bilotaitė is not reprimanded for similar and even harsher statements, because they are supported by the majority of ruling coalition.

 

    Bilotaitė is not the only politician who is openly and proudly against migrants. Andrius Mazuronis, the vice-chairman of the Seimas and the leader of the "Labour Party", claims that illegal migrants demanded more human rights than Lithuanian citizens, and that Lithuania could have looked more at the interest of national security than the "interest of so-called human rights".

 

    It is difficult to take Mazuroni's opinion seriously. Because migrants were held in captivity for years without a court verdict, locked up in camps where living conditions did not meet normal standards. The fugitives did not pose any serious threat to national security. Almost all migrants left Lithuania, it is possible to assess what they did.

 

    How many of them became saboteurs, spreaders of Moscow's lies, how many of them were violent, attacked, robbed people, raped women, etc. t.? If at all, it is very little. It is true that keeping fugitives costs money, but relatively little, because the accommodation conditions are deliberately primitive. These days, the UK pays 6.8 million. pounds sterling per day for lodging fugitives in hotels. Refugees in Lithuania cannot even dream of a hotel.

 

    An alien coming from elsewhere would probably get the impression of a secret meeting, that it was decided not to contradict the authorities' stories. It is not surprising that the ministers, the courts, and the conservatives who portray themselves as holier than saints are silent, the same conservatives who talk non-stop about the politics of values  ​​and scold Western European countries that do not properly arm Ukraine.

 

    Organizations defending human rights are silent, although Seimas Controller Erika Leonaitė spoke openly. The leaders of the churches are silent, although the Scriptures proclaim the brotherhood of all mankind. It is silent, although it should not be silent, although it should expose this reluctance to see what is obvious, oppose it with all its might, appeal to the conscience of believers, urging them not to succumb to the psychology of the herd of sheep. And how can we criticize the Russians for not standing up to the illegal actions of their government, when we ourselves remain silent in the face of evil.

 

    Not all migrants can be accepted, a mass influx would cause serious problems. But Lithuania must respect international norms and give migrants the opportunity to request asylum. Requests may be rejected. We cannot support the conscious efforts of Bilotaitė and some other politicians to portray them as Moscow's helpers or tools, to baselessly, even falsely, explain that they pose a threat to national security, to imprison them in inadequately equipped camps. 

 

What is most puzzling is the general public silence and approval of actions that violate the rights of migrants."

 

Only those who now have the right to speak and control everything are silent - the communists still ruling us. They want to build a new iron curtain, only to find themselves on the western side of that curtain. And ordinary people in Lithuania are not silent, they openly say that emigrants will freely come, go through, and disappear from our sight.