Border guards detain five migrants with fake documents at Klaipėda port

LRT reported, citing the State Border Guard Service (VSAT), that border guards detained five irregular migrants with false or possibly misused documents at the port of Klaipėda. Four foreigners trying to travel west by ferry from Lithuania presented documents allegedly belonging to citizens of Italy, Austria, the Netherlands and Greece. The fifth likely used another person’s German travel document.

VSAT said officers checked the five people late Thursday at the Central Terminal as they attempted to buy ferry tickets to Germany. Based on the documents they presented, the group consisted of four men aged 19, 20, 22 and 23, and a 22-year-old woman.

Three men presented identity cards of Italian, Austrian and Greek citizens, while the woman showed a document belonging to a Dutch citizen. Officers determined that the four were using allegedly counterfeit documents made from materials that did not meet document production requirements, with details and printing that failed to comply with prescribed standards.

The fifth person identified himself as a Somali citizen and presented a German travel document and a German residence permit. Border guards suspected that he was using someone else’s travel document.

All five were detained and placed in custody. VSAT said irregular migrants in Lithuania have previously tried to reach Western countries by car, minibus, train, plane and on foot, but this was the first attempt to travel by sea ferry.

According to preliminary information, the foreigners entered Latvia from Belarus after illegally crossing the state border, and then travelled to Lithuania. Their mobile phones contained photographs of certificates issued by a Latvian foreigner registration centre.

The investigation found that one of those detained was a minor. After being questioned and notified of the suspicions against them, the four adults were transferred to the VSAT Foreigners’ Registration Centre in Pabradė, while the minor was handed over to the Reception and Integration Agency under the Ministry of Social Security and Labour.

All five migrants will later be returned to Latvia under a readmission agreement. The VSAT Pagėgiai Border Guard Unit has opened a pre-trial investigation into possession of counterfeit documents and the unlawful use of another person’s document. A prosecutor from the Klaipėda District Prosecutor’s Office of the Klaipėda Regional Prosecutor’s Office is overseeing the investigation.

The law provides for a fine, restriction of liberty, arrest or imprisonment of up to four years for each of the two alleged offences.