The court says such measures can be considered only in exceptional cases.
The court believes that decisions on softer measures should be based on conclusions on whether they will be sufficient to reach the goals stated in the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens, and "only in exceptional cases and on the basis of all circumstances established by the court, decisions can be made on the need to apply softer measures as alternatives to detention".
According to the SACL, in its heard cases, the applicants were third-country citizens who entered Lithuania illegally from Belarus and they were later accommodated at the Foreigners' Registration Center of the State Border Guard Service without the right to freely move within Lithuania's territory.
They ten turned to a district court and asked it to allow them to move to their picked accommodation and report to the Migration Department or the SBGS using electronic means on their whereabouts at set times.
The SACL says it did not establish in these specific cases that foreigners' presence in Lithuania amounted to their detention.
More than 4,200 irregular migrants have crossed into Lithuania from Belarus illegally so far this year. Lithuania and other Western countries accuse the Minsk regime of orchestrating the unprecedented migration influx, calling it "hybrid aggression".
Meanwhile, Latvian border guards have in the past 24 hours denied entry to 69 irregular migrants from Belarus, according to the SBGS.