The Baltic states are seeking damages, including compensation for border reinforcement costs.

Lithuania has filed a legal lawsuit against Belarus in the International Court of Justice (ICJ), accusing its neighbors of planning refugee and immigration crises by promoting smuggling of people across borders.

"The Belarusian regime must bear legal responsibility for planning waves of illegal immigration and the human rights violations caused," Lithuanian Attorney General Rimantas Mockus said in a statement on Monday.

“We are bringing this case to the International Court of Justice to send a clear message: No state can use vulnerable people as political pawns without having to face the consequences of international law.”

The case was filed in The Hague before the International Court of Justice on alleged violations of the United Nations Protocol and against land, sea and air migration smuggling.

The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry said it had attempted to resolve the issue through failed bilateral negotiations and there was evidence that the Belarusian state was directly involved in organizing refugee and immigration movements, including a surge in the Middle East flights operated by Belarus’ state-owned airlines.

After the landing in Belarus, many passengers were escorted to the Lithuanian border by Belarus security forces and forced to cross illegally, Lithuanian officials said.

Lithuania also accused Belarus of refusing to cooperate with border services to prevent irregular border crossings and said it was seeking compensation through the ICJ for alleged damages, including costs related to border reinforcement.

Tensions between the two countries have been in small groups since 2021, when thousands (mostly from the Middle East and Africa) began to reach the borders of Lithuania, Poland and Latvia.

Belarus has previously deported refugees and immigrants from the Middle East, with more than 400 Iraqis repatriated Baghdad from Minsk’s charter flight from Minsk in November 2021.

That same year, a Human Rights Watch report accused Belarus of creating a crisis and found that “the claims of violence, inhumanity and degradation treatment and coercion by Belarus’ border guards are common.”

EU officials also accused Minsk of “weaponization” migration to destabilize the group. Belarus strongly denies these claims.

In December, the EU approved emergency measures to allow member states bordering Belarus and Russia to temporarily suspend their rights to asylum for political purposes.