The nations have been at loggerheads for around four years over migration, with some claiming the issue has been weaponised for political ends.

11:28, Tue, May 20, 2025 | UPDATED: 11:28, Tue, May 20, 2025

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Lithuania has filed a case at the International Court of Justice (Image: Getty)

Two neighbouring European countries have become locked in a bitter legal battle over illegal migration. Lithuania has filed a case against Belarus, which lies on its southeastern border, at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which accuses the country of violating international law.

It alleges that Belarus organised the smuggling of migrants across their shared border, petitioning the court for compensation to redress the damage, EuroNews reported. Authorities claim Belarusian officials orchestrated flights from the Middle East and escorted migrants to the border before forcing them to cross illegally.

Bilateral talks had been staged in an effort to resolve the issue but these failed, after which Lithuania filed a case against its neighbour at the ICJ in The Hague, Netherlands. In a statement on Monday, Lithuania’s foreign ministry said the case would be decided on whether Belarus had breached the United Nations Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air.

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Belarus has previously been accused of weaponising migration to destabilise the EU (Image: Getty)

Lithuania says its neighbour organised irregular migration into its territory through direct state action, using flights by Belarusian state-owned airlines from regions which included the Middle East.

In the statement, Lithuanian justice minister Rimantas Mockus said: “The Belarusian regime must be held legally accountable for orchestrating the wave of illegal migration and the resulting human rights violations.

“We are taking this case to the International Court of Justice to send a clear message: no state can use vulnerable people as political pawns without facing consequences under international law.”

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Migrants were then guided northwest by Belarusian security officials and pressured into crossing the border illegally, Vilnius claims. A wave of migration from Belarus into EU member states has been a point of tension between the bloc and its neighbours since 2021.

During that year, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland all faced a migration crisis as thousands of people crossed over the Belarusian borders, primarily originating from the Middle East and Africa. At the time, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the situation was a hybrid threat where people had been instrumentalised by states for political reasons.#

She added: “This is not a migration crisis. This is the attempt of an authoritarian regime to try to destabilise its democratic neighbours."

EU officials have said Belarus is weaponising migration in an effort to destabilise the bloc, amid existing tension as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Minsk is a staunch supporter of Russia and allowed Putin’s regime to make use of its territory to launch the invasion in 2022.