Lithuania : Close Pabrade Detention Camp - Release the detainees !

Solidarity with the imprisoned refugees in Lithuania !

"Thirteen Somalis had spent three months in the dark, three metres underground in horrifying conditions. They never saw the light of day except during the daily exercise hour. They suffered from eye problems. It was terribly hot. The air was heavy, unbreathable. The place made you claustrophobic.The Somalis were in the midst of their second hunger strike."

This is taken from a 1995 report by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. Is it about Campsfield ? Or Harmondsworth ? Or some local prison ?

It is about none of these places. It is about Yanaua detention centre in Lithuania.

This raises the question - what are Somalian refugees doing in a Lithuanian detention centre ? There is a double answer. First they were double-crossed by criminal racketeers who, for a fortune, promised to get them into mainland Europe. Second the European Union countries are intent on creating a ring of buffer states to operate as a first line of exclusion from Fortress Europe. The Nordic countries, Sweden, Norway and Denmark, are acting as financiers for the erection of controls around the Baltic states of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia. The Swedish Foreign Affairs Ministry in its 1997 Report on its Immigration and Refugee Policy states :

"A main objective of Sweden’s and the other Nordic countries co-operation with Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania is to approximate these countries’ refugee and migration policies to those of Western Europe...As a result the Baltic states will cease to be attractive to refugees as transit countries. This should also facilitate these countries eventual accession to the EU...As a result of the Swedish initiative in the summer of 1996 that led to the setting up of a Council for Baltic Sea Co-operation, exchange and co-operation on migration policy in the Baltic Sea region will be intensified. The Task Force that has been set up to combat organised crime in the area will also deal with the smuggling in human beings and illegal migration"

Refugees awaiting expulsion are now kept in a prison camp, known as the Foreigner’s Registration Centre, in Pabrade. The only black people in Lithuania appear to be in this camp. The conditions in the camp are harsh. A Sri Lankian refugee was beaten in front of his family because he refused an order to remove garbage from the camp. Another Sri Lankian was beaten by guards because he wanted to use the telephone.The Lithuanian Red Cross has set up an excellent project to support these refugees - The Legal Assistance Project for Refugees.

What you can do to help the refugees

• For more information and offers of help write to : The Legal Assistance Project for Refugees, Lithuanian Red Cross, Gedimino Avenue 3A, 2600 Vilnius
• In the UK contact GMIAU, 400 Cheetham Hill Rd, Manchester M8.