Lithuanian Media Exposes Rape of Male Refugees in Closed State Centres in Lithuania
Independent Lithuanian news outlet Delfi has published a detailed investigation revealing systematic sexual violence against young male refugees inside Lithuania’s closed migration and detention facilities.
The report, written by journalist Vitaute Merekaitė and released on 16 October 2025, documents testimonies of Iraqi men raped by a psychologist working in state institutions, raising urgent questions about impunity, institutional complicity, and the silence surrounding refugees male victims of sexual abuse in Lithuania.
The Delfi investigation documents how a psychologist in Lithuania’s migration system exploited his authority to threaten and coerce young male refugees into sexual acts. Testimonies from Iraqi victims, court findings, and the chronology of events show a pattern of abuse carried out inside facilities assumed to be tightly controlled.
By presenting these cases alongside expert commentary and systemic context, the report exposes how closed institutions create environments where oversight collapses and violence goes unreported. Understanding these structural failures is essential for assessing accountability in Lithuania’s migration and justice systems and for recognising male refugees as vulnerable victims of sexual abuse.
Raped in the shower, on the stairwell, in the classroom: there are plenty of guards, but life in these Lithuanian institutions turns into hell for men.
This excerpt is from a Delfi article by Vitaute Merekaitė dated October 16, 2025. The full text of the article is available at the link.
Summer 2021. Lithuania is fully gripped by the migration crisis. A psychologist arrives at one of the many migrant rooms early in the morning, before the start of the workday. The door is locked, the curtains are drawn. Threats pour from the psychologist’s lips toward the migrants: you will be transferred to another place or deported to your country of origin. All this will happen if the psychologist’s demands are not met. And then the sexual violence begins.
This is about psychologist Tomas Kelpša. On July 3 of this year, he heard the court’s decision. The court found T. Kelpša guilty of sexual crimes against migrants in the then-migration center and sentenced him to real imprisonment. The Appellate Court will decide the further fate of T. Kelpša and his victims.
How can such horrific crimes occur in a migration center where people are under close supervision? It turns out that sexual violence in such closed institutions is nothing new. Just look at the comments on social media: when a notorious criminal is sent to prison, at least one comment appears saying that the one who ends up in prison will become a “rooster.”
Delfi invites you to learn more about the disgusting reality of sexual violence in prisons, migration centers, and other closed institutions. We present three different stories that tell of the same horrors. All the victims are men. However, this does not mean that it happens only to them. Kristina Mišinienė, head of the Center for Combating Trafficking in Persons and Exploitation, also shares her thoughts on sexual violence in closed institutions.
“I cried and begged him to stop”
T. Kelpša’s victims were four migrants, all Iraqi citizens. T. Kelpša worked as a psychologist for the Red Cross, and before the scandal over his behavior broke out, the man had worked for 12 days at the State Border Guard Service (VSAT). The court sentenced the convicted man to one and a half years of imprisonment and a fine of 5 thousand euros. The court also ruled that T. Kelpša must pay 10 thousand euros to each, totaling 40 thousand euros. The convicted man is prohibited from engaging in psychological activities for four years. “According to the court’s assessment, the number of crimes committed by Tomas Kelpša, their danger, systematic nature, as well as his defensive position in an attempt to minimize his guilt and thus avoid criminal liability, give the court no grounds to conclude in this case that he will not commit new criminal acts of a similar nature in the future, and at the same time preclude the court from considering the motion to suspend the execution of the sentence of imprisonment,” stated Judge A. Juozapavičienė.
However, the case is currently being considered by the Appellate Court. In September 2023, Delfi interviewed one of T. Kelpša’s victims. This is Ali (name changed to protect the victim’s interests). Ali said he arrived in Lithuania in the summer of 2021. For some time, he lived in a tent camp in Rūdninkai, and then he was transferred to a container house in Medininkai. There he lived in a special sector for LGBT foreigners. Initially, T. Kelpša arrived at the camp with a mobile team of doctors, social workers, and psychologists. Since the detained and illegal migrants needed constant consultations, a few months later, a stationary psychologist’s office was set up in a separate container.
According to Delfi journalist Vytis Miškinis, Ali often visited this office because he spoke English fluently, so both the camp administration and the psychologist used the Iraqi as an Arabic translator. The boy remembers how one morning the officers woke him up and told him to go to the psychologist’s office, saying he had a task and needed translator help. “But when I arrived, Tom was there alone. He locked the door. For a few minutes, he talked as usual, and then he told me what to do,” said Ali. According to the victim, the psychologist did not use physical violence against him, but he broke him with threats, saying that if Ali did not obey, he would be sent back to Iraq, and if he behaved as ordered, he would be able to leave the camp, and many other privileges awaited him.
“I was convinced that he was very powerful and influential, that he could do anything,” Ali said, explaining that he saw no other way out. After some time, Ali was transferred to Pabradė, where the conditions were somewhat better. The guy thought that his nightmare with T. Kelpša was over. “I thought it was done, he’s far away. But one morning something wakes me up, I get up and see him again. I think: what the hell is happening, he has no place here, we have our own normal psychologist,” Ali recalls. According to the boy, in Pabradė, T. Kelpša again used his services, although Ali begged him not to. “I cried, begged him to stop, not to act like that, but he didn’t listen to me,” the interviewee said. “I informed Red Cross workers and a representative of the ‘Doctors Without Borders’ organization about what the psychologist was doing to me. The Red Cross recommended lawyer Laurynas Bekša to me, but he told me that I would have to pay 1600 euros. I don’t have that kind of money. The ‘Doctors Without Borders’ representative promised to take care of a lawyer, but he was on vacation, and it’s unknown when he will contact me,” the victim told Delfi. Lawyer Blyvas confirmed to Delfi that he is on vacation and does not know if he will take on the victim’s defense. On social media, you can find photos of Kelpša with the Speaker of the Lithuanian Parliament Victoria Čmilytė-Nielsen, liberal Edita Rudelienė, Vilnius Mayor Remigijus Šimašius, and other politicians. Kelpša worked in kindergartens, gymnasiums, and the pedagogical psychological service.
The full interview with Ali can be read HERE:
As Delfi was informed by Gedrius Mišutis, a representative of the State Security Department, T. Kelpša worked at the service for only a few days. According to him, the Red Cross provided no information to the State Security Department that could indicate Kelpša’s criminal activity. To the question of how this sexual violence could have happened, G. Mišutis points out that a psychologist’s consultation is confidential, meaning it takes place in a room with no outsiders who could witness the crime…
The photos used in the article were taken by photographer Marco Bianchetti
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