Migrants who fled to the EU nation of Lithuania from Belarus have been returned to Iraq, 98 of which were offered €1,000 to board the flight.
Agnè Bilotaite, Lithuanian Minister of the Interior, said that it made financial sense to make the payments, saying:
"We estimate how much it costs for us one migrant. The basic cost of maintaining one migrant is €11,000 per year. It is obviously much more profitable for us to offer a benefit, buy a ticket or arrange a flight and thus have fewer challenges and other problems."
As many as 500 migrants to Lithuania who fled to the country via Belarus have now been returned to their home nations.
The border between Belarus and its EU neighbours has become a major point of contention over the last year with many immigrants, mostly from Africa and Asia, making it to Belarus and then attempting to reach an EU nation. It is alleged that the Belarussian regime is allowing migrants to cross their border in order to deliberately cause a crisis within the EU. The Belarussian regime under despot Alexander Lukashenko currently has multiple financial sanctions placed upon it by the EU and the US due to human rights abuses that have taken place in the country since a rigged election in 2021. Some commentators believe that Belarus is attempting to pressure the EU into lifting sanctions by threatening them with an influx of refugees.
In recent weeks Europol, a European police agency, has stated that they have found hundreds of social media pages encouraging would be migrants to come to Belarus where they will be offered fake ID and a safe route into the EU. It is not clear whether these advertisements are run by criminals or by the Belarussian government themselves.
Human rights activists have said that many of the refugees living in Belarus are living in terrible conditions, with little food and exposure to the freezing winter temperatures. Several EU nations will come together over the next week to discuss a solution to the ongoing crisis.
[Based on reporting by: euronews]
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