Situation worsening in Lithuanian migrant camp

The humanitarian situation in migrant camps in Lithuania is deteriorating as heavy rain and overcrowding increases.

More than 4,100 migrants, most of them from Iraq, have crossed this year from Belarus into Lithuania.

Earlier this week, faced with an increasing number of arrivals each day, Lithuania had ordered its border guards to turn away, by force if needed, migrants attempting to enter the Baltic country.

The Red Cross is warning that Lithuania's decision to turn away immigrants attempting to cross in from neighbouring Belarus does not comply with international law.

Meanwhile, the Belarus government says it has called on border guards to prevent Lithuanian authorities from sending migrants back to Belarus.

Lithuania is accusing the government of Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko of encouraging the migrant flow in retaliation for the EU sanctions against his country following the diversion of a passenger plane to arrest a dissident journalist aboard.

Lithuania officials estimate that more than 10,000 more migrants might try to arrive this year as the number of direct flights from Iraq to the Belarus capital of Minsk tripled in August.

The country has no physical barriers for its almost 679 kilometer (420-mile) long border with Belarus.

On Monday, EU officials pledged millions of euros to help Lithuania tackle its migrant crisis.

Lithuania wants to build a physical barrier with Belarus, which it estimates will cost more than 100 million euros ($119 million) but EU funding is not usually permitted to finance border barriers.

Some Lithuanian politicians, meanwhile, urged the government to still respect the migrants' rights.

Tomas Vytautas Raskevicius, the head of the parliamentary human rights committee, said he saw the measures taken by Lithuanian authorities as "necessary" but acknowledged that the migrant situation "is sensitive from the point of view of human rights, and that should be assessed."

Raskevicius, a member of the liberal Freedom Party, said attention should be paid in particular to women who migrate with children.