Lithuanian Red Cross publishes its annual monitoring report for 2025

The 2025 monitoring report of the Lithuanian Red Cross highlighted that Lithuania’s asylum and reception system underwent significant operational changes in 2025, particularly following the establishment of the Reception and Integration Agency and changing migration routes in the region. 

While reception conditions generally met basic standards and several improvements were observed, the monitoring identified persistent concerns regarding effective access to asylum procedures, restrictions on freedom of movement, the use of measures viewed as de facto detention, and the treatment of people moving through irregular migration channels. 

The report emphasizes the need for greater transparency, stronger procedural safeguards, improved inter-institutional coordination, and enhanced independent monitoring in line with emerging European Union migration and asylum frameworks.

Trends and access to application

• Lithuania recorded a slight increase in asylum applications compared with 2024, while asylum applications generally declined across the European Union.
• The diversity of applicants’ countries of origin increased significantly.
• Applications registered by the Migration Department increased, while those registered by border authorities remained broadly stable. The number of asylum seekers arriving through official border crossing points with Belarus and Russia declined sharply.
• The report documents instances in which individuals reportedly requested asylum at border crossing points but were not admitted into the asylum procedure. Pushbacks at the Belarusian border increased compared with the previous year.
• A growing proportion of asylum seekers reached Lithuania after irregular entry through neighboring countries, particularly Latvia, or after transfer from Poland.

Unaccompanied minors

• Lithuania experienced a significant increase in the number of unaccompanied migrant children.
• Most children were accommodated in dedicated reception facilities, although many later left the centres or were transferred under readmission arrangements.The report did not identify systematic restrictions on children’s access to asylum procedures

Reception conditions

• Reception centres experienced pressure from rising occupancy levels, especially in Pabradė and Rukla.
• Challenges included overcrowding, shortages of information and interpretation services.
• The newly established Reception and Integration Agency assumed responsibility for reception services and accommodation resulting in improvements in information provision, community activities, and support services in some centres
• During 2025, newly arrived residents in the Pabradė Reception Centre were placed in medical isolation, mostly regardless of individual health circumstances. Later in the year, practices changed following clarifications from public health authorities, and automatic quarantine was largely discontinued in the absence of health indications.

Detention

• The report found some accommodation arrangements can be considered in practice “de facto detention”, even when formally classified as alternatives to detention.
• Monitors observed inconsistencies in granting permission to leave accommodation centres and raised concerns about transparency and procedural safeguards.