The operation PERKUNAS (THUNDER) was conducted from the end of September to mid - October at the external borders and on the territories of the aforementioned states; it was co-ordinated by the National Co-ordination Centre of the State Border Guard Service under the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Lithuania (SBGS) in co-operation with the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union (Frontex), which rendered support to the SBGS in collecting and analyzing the data on illegal border crossings of the EU external border.
The main objective of the operation was to examine the link between illegal border crossings of the EU external borders and intra-Schengen (intra-EU) secondary movements. Another important objective was to gather information about intra-Schengen (intra-EU) irregular migration flows.
Officers responsible for border protection and prevention of irregular immigration of each participating country were to send to the Lithuanian SBGS National Coordination Centre daily reports on detained irregular immigrants and detected cases of irregular immigration.
During the two-week operation, 24 participating countries reported 2888 cases related to irregular migration at the external borders and within the territories of the EU Member States and Schengen associated countries. In total, 10 459 irregular immigrants were detained either at the border or inside the EU Member States and Schengen associated countries.
Top nationalities of the detained irregular immigrants were Syria (3770 persons), Eritrea (1347 persons) and Afghanistan (590 persons).
During the operation, information about final destination countries was also collected and afterwards analyzed by the SBGS. Conducted debriefings of the detained irregular immigrants showed that in majority of cases Germany was indicated as a country of final destination; other countries were Sweden, Italy, Switzerland and Spain. In addition, analysis of collected information made it clear that the United Kingdom could be also considered as a country of final destination.
Out of 10 thousand detained irregular immigrants, 577 persons were in possession of fraudulent documents – passports, ID cards, temporal or permanent residence permits of EU Member States, visas, etc..
During the operation PERKUNAS it was established than an average cost of travel to the EU totalled EUR 1983. This amount could vary depending on such factors as the country of origin, travel route, mode of border crossing and the like. Some immigrants claimed they have paid more than EUR 11 000 for their journey to the EU.
The operation PERKUNAS confirmed formerly known trends that the main routes of irregular immigrants run across the southern regions of the EU and the central part of the Mediterranean sea.
Over the last three years (in 2010, 2011 and 2012) similar international operations were organized and co-ordinated by Belgium, Hungary, Poland, Denmark and Cyprus.
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