Irregular migration is the migration of people to a new place of residence or transit that is not in accordance with the legal norms that have been established by the sending, transit or receiving states. For the vast majority of irregular migrants Lithuania is a transit state whilst trying to reach West Europe or Scandinavian countries.
3119 foreigners were denied entry to Lithuania in 2024, mainly because they didn’t have documents justifying the purpose and conditions of their stay (35%), due to threat to security and public order (27%) or because they did not have a valid travel document (18%).
The residence of a foreigner considered illegal if the period of his or her stay in the Republic of Lithuania exceeds the period of residence established for foreigners;
the foreigner stays in Lithuania after the expiration of visa or without a visa (in case, it is necessary), or with a revoked or forged visa; the foreigner does not have a valid travel document; if he or she entered the Republic of Lithuania illegally or resides in Lithuania without a residence permit or with an invalid, revoked or forged residence permit. 4448 of illegally staying foreigners were present within the territory of Lithuania in 2024, most of them were the citizens of Belarus, Russia and Uzbekistan.
Return means the process of a foreigner who does not fulfil or no longer fulfils the conditions of legal stay in Lithuania going back to his/her country of origin.
These people can leave voluntarily given a certain period of time for voluntary departure. If they do not leave Lithuania within this time period or the period for voluntary departure cannot be given, then they are expelled from Lithuania.
The graphic portrays the number of foreigners subject to a return decision and the number of people expelled from Lithuania. It is worth noting that return decisions also include obligations to leave (when foreigners are returned to other EU Member states where they can stay legally).
Source: Migration Department. Updated: 2025-09-01
For more than eighteen years the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Vilnius office provided assisted voluntary return to non-EU citizens who have found themselves in an irregular situation in Lithuania.
Assisted voluntary return aims to help migrants who are in Lithuania illegally to return to their country of origin safely and with dignity. The assistance was given to non-EU citizens, who decided to leave voluntarily but did not have financial means to leave on their own.