Lithuanian border guards detain three migrants travelling toward Germany

Border guards detained three irregular migrants at Vilnius Airport and in Pasvalys district in a single day as they tried to reach Germany, LRT reported, citing the State Border Guard Service (VSAT).

The three men, one Pakistani and two Algerian citizens, will be returned to Latvia, where they had unlawfully left an asylum-seeker accommodation centre, VSAT said.

On Thursday evening, VSAT officers at Vilnius Airport checked two young men at the boarding gate in the Schengen departure terminal after receiving advance information from intelligence officers. The men showed digital boarding passes on their phones but said they had no identity documents.

One of them identified himself as a 20-year-old Algerian citizen and said he had entered Latvia illegally from Belarus. Officers found a Latvian foreigner registration certificate issued to him. He then admitted leaving the Mucenieki asylum-seeker accommodation centre near Riga and taking a taxi to Vilnius Airport. His intended destination was France.

The second man, a 21-year-old Algerian citizen, gave a similar account. After illegally crossing from Belarus into Latvia, he was detained and applied for asylum before escaping from the same accommodation centre. He travelled to Vilnius by train, planning to fly to Berlin and then continue to France.

Both Algerian citizens were handed over to officers at the VSAT Foreigners’ Registration Centre.

A few hours later, VSAT officers from the Šiauliai Border Guard Station stopped a MAN intercity bus travelling from Tallinn to Berlin on the Riga-Pasvalys-Panevėžys motorway near Talačkoniai village in Pasvalys district.

During document checks, officers noticed a young man who had no identity documents authorising him to enter or stay in Lithuania. When asked whether he had asylum-seeker documents, the passenger presented an asylum-seeker identity card issued in Latvia on May 28 to a 20-year-old Pakistani citizen.

The man admitted entering Latvia illegally from Belarus on April 28 and travelling onward to Lithuania, where he was soon detained. On May 28, Lithuanian border guards handed him over to Latvian officers. He later tried again to travel illegally to Germany.

The Pakistani citizen said he was travelling from Riga to Berlin. The Estonian-registered bus driver told border guards that the passenger had boarded the bus at Riga bus station and was travelling to Germany, but that he had not noticed the man when passengers boarded.

The man was unable to continue to Berlin and was taken to the VSAT Foreigners’ Registration Centre in Pabradė.

VSAT said that, after the necessary procedures, migrants detained while using the so-called Latvian route are usually returned by Lithuanian border guards to their Latvian counterparts.

Latvia has recently faced significant pressure from irregular migration from Belarus. This year, 10,181 migrants attempted to enter Latvia, were detained and returned to Belarus, or were stopped by Latvian border guards on the Belarusian side. That figure is more than eight times the 1,268 people stopped by Lithuanian border guards from entering Lithuania.

Secondary migration from Latvia has also increased significantly, from 1,288 cases in 2025 to 1,836 in the first seven months of this year.