Lithuanian border guards detain 12 migrants travelling from Latvia

Lithuanian border guards detained 12 African migrants over the weekend who had sought asylum in Latvia but left their accommodation without waiting for decisions and travelled towards Western Europe, LRT reports.

Five people, three men and two women, were stopped early Friday at the bus station in Mažeikiai district as they prepared to travel to Vilnius. They had Egyptian and Algerian citizenship and Latvian asylum-seeker certificates issued this year. The documents did not allow them to enter or stay in Lithuania or travel outside Latvia.

Two of the five had digital boarding passes on their phones for a Saturday flight to Málaga, Spain. Lithuanian border guards detained the group and transferred them to the Foreigners’ Registration Centre in Pabradė.

Three more migrants were detained near Mažeikiai on Saturday night. The Moroccan men, aged 21 and 24, and a 27-year-old Egyptian had no travel documents and showed Latvian identity cards issued by a foreigners’ registration centre.

At Vilnius Airport, border guards stopped a 19-year-old Egyptian on Saturday as he planned to fly to Paris. He had left an asylum-seeker accommodation centre in Daugavpils, Latvia, the previous day and travelled to Lithuania by bus. On Sunday, guards detained three more Egyptian nationals at the airport: a 28-year-old planning to fly to Paris and two men, aged 26 and 27, who intended to travel to Hamburg.

Preliminary information indicates that the migrants had flown from their home countries in Africa to Belarus, crossed illegally into Latvia and were detained there. They then sought asylum but left accommodation centres in Mucenieki and Daugavpils before their cases were decided, intending to continue west from Vilnius.

The State Border Guard Service said migrants often seek asylum in the first EU country they enter, then look for opportunities to travel to Western Europe. It said they may continue in groups using smugglers or travel by bus, train, car, plane or ferry, sometimes with someone else’s or forged travel documents.

Authorities recorded 2,139 cases of secondary migration this year up to Monday, compared with 1,288 for all of 2025. The figures concern migrants who enter Latvia illegally from Belarus and later try to reach Western Europe through Lithuania and Poland. After the necessary procedures, Lithuania usually returns those detained on this route to Latvian authorities.