"Last year was a record year since the creation of the asylum system in Lithuania. We have never received so many asylum requests in one year," Evelina Gudzinskaite, the department's director.
The changes in the routes some immigrants take to enter the EU were behind the increase, Gudzinskaite said. The majority of immigrants asked for asylum on the Belarusian-Lithuanian border, and it was not the first attempt to enter the EU for part of them.
"They are in such a desperate situation that they ask for asylum for a ninth, tenth time. Some of them are asking for asylum not in the first country. So it's better for them to try their luck numerous times here, rather than attempting once and then going back home and staying," she said.
The majority of people who asked for asylum in Lithuania last were Russian and Tajik nationals, accounting for 281 and 217 cases respectively.
Out of the total number of 646 asylum requests, only 92 of them satisfied.
"It shows that a lot of those who sought asylum and failed to get it were the so-called economic migrants, people who are just looking for a better life but have no basis for getting asylum," the director of the Migration Department said.
