All news

Over 170 illegal migrants sent back home from Lithuania since early August — ministry

On August 7, Vilnius took a decision to pay a lump-sum payment of 300 euro to migrants willing to leave Lithuania for their home countries and buy tickets for them

VILNIUS, October 1. /TASS/. Lithuania has sent more than 170 illegal migrants from Asia and Africa back to their countries who reached the country from Belarus since early August, the Lithuanian interior ministry said on Friday.

"The number of illegal migrants who either voluntarily left our country or were expelled has reached 176," it said.

According to the ministry, sixty-three out of those deported were Iraqi nationals. The Iraqi embassy employees helped the Lithuanian side to do the necessary paperwork.

On August 7, Vilnius took a decision to pay a lump-sum payment of 300 euro to migrants willing to leave Lithuania for their home countries and buy tickets for them. The first migrant who opted to take this opportunity was a citizen of Cameroon who left Lithuania on August 2. Migrants from Iraq account for about two-thirds of Lithuania’s 4,000 illegal migrants. The first one of them was expelled from the country on August 12.