Refugees can now seek asylum in two of the Baltic States.
Lithuania acceded to the 1951 Convention and 1967 Protocol relating to the status of Refugees on 21 January, followed by Estonia on 19 February. The two countries had also adopted national legislation on refugees prior to acceding to the major refugee instrument. Baltic States have been plagued by waves of transit migration ever since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Many of the migrants used illegal means to go west. The decision of the two Baltic States to accede to the international refugee instrument confirms the emergence of growing cohesion in the Baltic Sea area, which replaces the old division between the East and the West.