The Baltic nation is looking for damages, together with compensation for border reinforcement prices.
Lithuania has initiated authorized proceedings in opposition to Belarus on the Worldwide Court docket of Justice (ICJ), accusing its neighbour of orchestrating a refugee and migrant disaster by facilitating the smuggling of individuals throughout their border.
“The Belarusian regime should be held legally accountable for orchestrating the wave of unlawful migration and the ensuing human rights violations,” Lithuanian Justice Minister Rimantas Mockus mentioned in a press release on Monday.
“We’re taking this case to the Worldwide Court docket of Justice to ship a transparent message: no state can use susceptible individuals as political pawns with out going through penalties below worldwide legislation.”
The case, submitted to the ICJ in The Hague, centres on alleged violations by Belarus of the United Nations Protocol in opposition to the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air.
Lithuania’s Ministry of Overseas Affairs mentioned makes an attempt to resolve the problem by way of bilateral talks failed and it has proof displaying direct involvement by the Belarusian state in organising refugee and migrant flows, together with a surge in flights from the Center East operated by Belarusian state-owned airways.
After touchdown in Belarus, most of the passengers had been escorted to the Lithuanian border by Belarusian safety forces and compelled to cross illegally, Lithuanian officers mentioned.
Lithuania additionally accused Belarus of refusing to cooperate with its border providers in stopping irregular crossings and mentioned it’s looking for compensation by way of the ICJ for alleged damages induced, together with prices associated to frame reinforcement.
Tensions between the 2 nations have simmered since 2021 when 1000’s of individuals – principally from the Center East and Africa – started arriving on the borders of Lithuania, Poland and Latvia from Belarus.
Belarus had beforehand deported Center Japanese refugees and migrants with greater than 400 Iraqis repatriated to Baghdad on a constitution flight from Minsk in November 2021.
That very same yr, a Human Rights Watch report accused Belarus of producing the disaster, discovering that “accounts of violence, inhuman and degrading therapy and coercion by Belarusian border guards had been commonplace”.
European Union officers have additionally accused Minsk of “weaponising” migration in an effort to destabilise the bloc. The claims are strongly denied by Belarus.
In December, the EU authorised emergency measures permitting member states bordering Belarus and Russia to quickly droop asylum rights in instances during which migration is being manipulated for political ends.
