The Court Found Border Officials Acted Illegally by Pushback of an Asylum Seeker to Belarus
2025 12 30
On 30 December 2025, the Lithuanian Supreme Administrative Court (LVAT) issued a final ruling in administrative case No. eA-820-552/2025, recognizing that VSAT officers acted illegally by forcibly pushing a Sri Lankan citizen to Belarus without giving him an effective opportunity to seek asylum. The applicant suffered frostbite, physical pain, and trauma. LVAT emphasized that while direct evidence of an asylum request was not presented, the applicant’s actions indicated his intent to seek protection immediately upon arrival at the medical facility.
"At the border, independent monitoring of pushbacks is not conducted, and during pushbacks, foreigners are unable to use video or audio recording devices, making it extremely difficult to collect evidence that they actually requested international protection. The court’s ruling confirms the right to apply to a court for a violation of the right to asylum despite these circumstances. A similar ruling was recently issued by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in Case C-136/24 P regarding the actions of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (FRONTEX). In that case, the CJEU stated that the rules on the allocation of the burden of proof and evidence collection cannot negate the right to effective legal protection – a person cannot be imposed with a disproportionate or practically impossible evidentiary burden, nor can the principle of procedural equality between the parties be violated when the other party to the dispute, in this case FRONTEX, is in a much more advantageous position for gathering evidence." – commented Rytis Satkauskas, managing partner at the law firm ReLex, representing the applicant in the case.
NGO Sienos Grupė reports that a Syrian citizen was also pushed to Belarus, suffering amputations due to frostbite. Witness testimony confirmed that refugees were forced back into Belarus with minimal provisions.
Pushback practices in Lithuania began on 3 August 2021 by order of the Minister of Interior. Amendments in 2023 allowed refusal of entry and pushbacks during a national emergency, but individuals fleeing war, persecution, or seeking humanitarian protection cannot be pushed back.
The case was initiated and funded by Sienos Grupė and the Human Rights Monitoring Institute.