"My name is ...... from Iraq. I'm a refugee in Lithuania and I have been living here about 7 months now. On the 25th of July 2021, I crossed the Belarusian border to Lithuania. Since I am here, I did not get any kind of help or humanitarian treatment. Directly after I crossed the border, they put me into a small closed camp at the border. The living conditions there were very bad. After 6 days, they moved us to another camp called Rūdninkai where I stayed about two months. The situation was very bad there as we were living in tents during the cold season and needed to cook food on the fire. As the living conditions were very bad, I tried to get out and escaped from the camp. I ran away into the forest but there was a police man and a K9 dog following me. When I saw the dog, I stopped running. As the police officer came close to me, I was telling him that I'm not trying to run anymore and that everything will be okay. He didn't listen to me and instead sprayed tear gas on me. I couldn't see anything anymore, so I leaned on a tree next to me. Then I heard the police man ordering the dog to attack me. A few minutes later, another police officer came and handcuffed me. We started walking even though I still couldn't see anything. They then took me to a place near the camp with a big container. They told me to undress my clothes and started searching me. They also took all of my stuff. Then they opened the cooling container for food and put me inside, even though I was bleeding and still covered with tear gas. They didn't check on me and kept me there about 5 hours. As I was taken out, we walked back to the camp with my hands still handcuffed. All the way to the camp, they were hitting me. After that they moved us to Kybartai prison and I lived in the fourth floor. After about one month they put me into solitary confinement and when I asked about the reason, they told me that it's an order from the migration department to keep me there for 5 days. After leaving solitary confinement, I talked to a red cross lawyer who told me that it was not the order from the migration department. I then asked one of the officers and he told me that it's for my own safety and that there's a danger in my floor. But it still did not make sense because if there would be a danger, why would they put me for 5 days in a closed cell? I tried to speak with the camp manager and as I met him, he told me that it was his decision as he decides everything about everyone here and that we don't have the right to decide or know about that. Until now, I'm still living in the same place in Kybartai.
There are a lot of stories like mine. They are committing crimes against humanity and no one care about that. So if anyone claims to be a human rights defender, they should do something to help us. For anyone who is concerned about human rights, I seriously need help! "