“We’re offering free return, voluntary return to Iraq,” Arnoldas Abramavicius, Lithuania’s deputy interior minister, told Rudaw’s Bestoon Khalid in an interview on Tuesday.
Iraqis made up more than half of an estimated 4,000 migrants who recently entered Lithuania from Belarus and are being held in camps pending processing of their asylum claims. The Lithuanian government has accused Belarus of “weaponizing” migrants, sending them across the border in a bid to force the European Union to ease sanctions.
Kurds held in camps in Lithuania have told Rudaw their conditions are poor, their tents are flooded, and some have resorted to drinking toilet water.
“Of course conditions are not so good” in the camps, because they were “misled and cheated” into thinking they would get to western Europe, said Abramavicius. Vulnerable people, including minors and families, have been moved to better shelters, but the government was not prepared for the influx of migrants and the situation will likely worsen when winter comes, he added.
He urged migrants to go home. “We can offer a free ticket and we can offer some pocket money, 300 euros,” he said. “Very few of them will be granted refugee status as we’re considering that Iraq is not a country affected by war. It’s, we consider it a democracy. And so there is no need to escape and to grant them refugee status.”
Some Iraqis have taken the offer, and five or 10 people have decided to return, he added.
Iraq is also repatriating its nationals stuck in Belarus. Over 300 migrants have returned home so far. Iraqi Airways has temporarily suspended flights to Minsk.
