COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -Lithuania’s foreign ministry said on Monday it has filed a case against Belarus at the International Court of Justice, accusing its neighbour of organizing and facilitating the smuggling of migrants into Lithuania.
“The Belarusian regime must be held legally accountable for orchestrating the wave of illegal migration and the resulting human rights violations,” Lithuania’s Justice Minister Rimantas Mockus said in a statement.
“We are taking this case to the International Court of Justice to send a clear message: no state can use vulnerable people as political pawns without facing consequences under international law,” he added.
In 2021, Latvia, Poland and Lithuania faced an immigration crisis when thousands of people, mostly from the Middle East and Africa, began crossing from Belarus. Belarus has previously denied the allegation.
(Reporting by Louise Breusch Rasmussen, editing by Stine Jacobsen)
