Fifteen Migrants Arriving From Belarus to Latvia Removed From Vilnius–Hamburg Flight

Lithuanian border guards detained 15 foreign nationals at Vilnius Airport who were attempting to fly to Germany after illegally leaving Latvia. According to the Lithuanian State Border Guard Service, all of them had previously applied for asylum in Latvia after entering the country illegally from Belarus.

The incident occurred this morning ahead of a flight to Hamburg, which is an intra-EU flight. On such internal EU flights, passengers’ personal documents are usually not checked, with controls applied only to those traveling to third countries outside the EU.

Border guards on duty at Vilnius Airport noticed three men near the boarding gate and asked them to present their documents. They showed only certificates issued by Latvia’s Foreigners Registration Center. According to preliminary information, these individuals applied for asylum in Latvia after illegally entering the country from Belarus, the border service said.

Despite a ban on leaving the country before the completion of asylum procedures, they unlawfully departed Latvia and planned to reach Western Europe via Lithuania, most often Germany.

Suspecting that this was not an isolated case, Lithuanian border guards checked passengers on board the aircraft. As a result, another 12 people with the same status were identified. All 15 foreign nationals had no registered baggage and were removed from the flight.

Among those detained, two held Latvian asylum seeker certificates issued to Egyptian citizens, while the rest were issued to Sudanese citizens. After the necessary procedures, they will be handed over to the Latvian authorities.

On Tuesday in Šiauliai, border guards also removed and detained 10 Somali and Sudanese nationals from a Riga–Vilnius train who had also sought asylum in Latvia. They had likewise illegally left Latvia and were trying to reach Western Europe.

The border service noted that the so-called “Latvian route” is increasingly being used by migrants who, after crossing the border from Belarus and applying for asylum in the Baltic states, attempt to illegally move on to Western Europe.

Last year, Lithuanian border guards detained 1,288 migrants transported from Latvia or crossing the border on their own, nearly one and a half times more than in 2024 (540).

In 2025, officers of the State Border Guard Service launched 85 pretrial investigations into cases of illegal transportation of people across the border and detained 101 transporters. In the vast majority of cases, the foreign nationals were illegally transported from Latvia.