Skip to main content
A temporary camp in Rūdninkai
War in Gaza:: find out how we're responding
Learn more

MSF closed its activities in Lithuania in 2022

In Lithuania, we worked with people on the move.

Our teams provided basic healthcare and mental health support to migrants and asylum seekers who have crossed the border from Belarus, and who have usually been subjected to violence and abuse.

Our activities in Lithuania and Latvia in 2022

Data and information from the International Activity Report 2022.

MSF in Lithuania/Latvia in 2022 From the beginning of 2022, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) started to provide medical and mental health care to migrants and asylum seekers held in detention centres across Latvia and Lithuania.
Lithuania_Latvia IAR Map 2022

MSF started offering medical and humanitarian support in Lithuania in September 2021, with the aim of offering medical and humanitarian support to migrants and asylum seekers crossing into the country from Belarus. Initially, our teams provided mental health care at nine border posts, where migrants and asylum seekers — from countries including Iraq, Democratic Republic of Congo, Syria, Cameroon, Nigeria and Afghanistan — were detained in dire conditions.

In January 2022, our teams started to conduct basic medical and mental health consultations for people who had been transferred to Foreigners’ Registration Centres (FRCs) in Kybartai and Medininkai. Many were experiencing distress related to detention and limited freedom of movement, as well as uncertainty about their future and the asylum process.  

On 6 May, we suspended activities in the two FRCs, as conditions imposed on MSF by the Lithuanian State Border Guard Service created an environment that would have compromised medical ethics and humanitarian principles, and ultimately the quality of care.

After that date, we offered remote psychological support to detained people who asked us for assistance, and ran informal group sessions outside the FRCs for people who had limited freedom of movement. By December, however, continuous pushbacks at the border meant that fewer people were able to enter the country and the FRCs were nearly empty. This significantly limited MSF’s ability to reach those in need.  

From July to December, MSF assisted migrants and asylum seekers held in the Mucenieki and Daugavpils immigration detention centres in neighbouring Latvia. In addition to psychological and psychosocial support, our teams provided hygiene kits, food, items such as books, board games and stationery, and some financial aid. However, since our teams were not granted unrestricted access to patients, it was difficult to deliver care that ensured medical confidentiality and compliance with medical ethics, and we therefore closed our activities in Latvia and Lithuania in December.

 

 
Refugee Reception Centre | Rukla
Lithuania

Concerns for migrant welfare in Lithuania and Latvia as projects close

Project Update 11 Jan 2023
 
Forest - Tracks in the snow (01)
Lithuania

People repeatedly repelled at Lithuania and Latvia borders face increased suffering

Press Release 15 Dec 2022
 
MIGRANT PUSHBACK | Lithuania Belarus Border
Lithuania

Repeated pushbacks cause mental and physical suffering for people crossing Lithuanian border

Project Update 16 Sep 2022
 
Foreigner Registration Centre (FRC) | Kybartai
Lithuania

A “hierarchy of suffering” exacerbates asylum seekers’ mental health in Lithuania

Press Release 30 Aug 2022
 
External view of Kybartai State Border Guards (SBG) Foreigner Registration Centre
Lithuania

People detained in Lithuania are experiencing abuse, violence and mental health distress

Press Release 6 May 2022