Responding to the Court of Justice of the European Union\u2019s finding today that Lithuanian national law, which orders the automatic detention of people who cross irregularly into the country and effectively denies them the right to asylum, is incompatible with EU laws, Nils Mui\u017enieks, Europe Regional Director of Amnesty International, said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Court of Justice of the European Union today confirmed the conclusions in our latest report on Lithuania, which details the authorities\u2019 flagrant violation of European and international law by not only denying the right to asylum for irregular arrivals in the country, but also arbitrarily detaining them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLithuania is duty bound by its international obligations to offer access to international protection to asylum seekers. Following today\u2019s finding by the Court of Justice of the EU, the authorities should immediately repeal this repressive legislation. It is essential that Lithuania offers access to fair asylum procedures to all who express a need to gain international protection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Lithuanian authorities must also end their cruel practice of automatically detaining refugees and migrants. Today\u2019s judgment confirmed that depicting detention as \u2018temporary accommodation\u2019 or even an \u2018alternative to detention\u2019 does not allow any derogation from the obligation to respect refugees and migrants\u2019 rights against arbitrary detention.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Court found the practice of denying the right to asylum to be in violation of EU law, including the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, and debunked the Lithuanian claims that the country has the right to derogate European law in \u201cextraordinary situations\u201d or during the \u201cmass influx of foreigners.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Responding to the Court of Justice of the European Union\u2019s finding today that Lithuanian national law, which orders the automatic detention of people who cross irregularly into the country and effectively denies them the right to asylum, is incompatible with EU laws, Nils Mui\u017enieks, Europe Regional Director of Amnesty International, said: \u201cThe Court of Justice …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":83764,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_108372464460192_245495985553329":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[2165,2501,385],"class_list":["post-83763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","tag-european-union","tag-lithuania","tag-refugees"],"yoast_head":"\n