Migration

Lithuania might have to accept more than 250 refugees in an effort to help ease the Mediterranean migrant crisis, Lithuanian Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius said on Wednesday.

The European Council's decision to relocate 40,000 refuges from Greece and Italy to other EU member states over the next two years is a symbolic step, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė says, adding that the migration problem needs a more serious solution.

EU leaders have agreed that 40,000 refugees will be relocated from Greece and Italy to other EU member states over the next two years. The relocation of refugees will be based on solidarity and national integration capacities rather than mandatory quotas.

Lithuania hopes that the European Union's refugee resettlement scheme will be voluntary and will not be restricted to only migrants coming from the south.

Throughout the ages, people have migrated in search of a better life. For some it was about security, for others getting a bit more to eat and then there were those driven by curiosity. The special ability of a person to adapt to new conditions led to us spreading across the world.

The Lithuanian government gave a green light on Monday to receiving up to 250 refugees distributed by the European Commission (EC) in an effort to help ease the Mediterranean refugee crisis.

The Government of Lithuania on Wednesday agreed that Lithuania would be ready to accept up to 250 refugees over the course of two years as part of the EU effort to resolve the Mediterranean refugee crisis.

The European Commission's Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis says that the principle of voluntary solidarity earlier applied in the efforts to solve the refugee crisis in Southern Europe did not work, therefore, a mechanism of balanced distribution of asylum-seekers is required.

The special website for expatriates, recently launched in Lithuania, will provide all necessary information about the country and its municipalities "at any time of the day", Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius says.

Lithuania's Ministry of the Interior on Monday presented the government with a draft proposal which suggests accepting up to 200 refugees by 2018 in an effort to contribute to the resolution of the Mediterranean refugee crisis.

Lithuania's Minister of Foreign Affairs Linas Linkevičius has criticised the idea that the country should pick refugees to accept based on their country of origin.

Lithuania could take in 250 refugees as a voluntary contribution to the European Union's efforts to alleviate the Mediterranean migrant crisis, Foreign Minister Linas Linkevičius says. According to him, the number of 250 refugees, which the Lithuanian president recently mentioned, matches the countr...

Recently, I was asked by radio journalist Aurimas Perednis what I thought about the issue of illegal migrants flooding the EU's southern states. No one in Europe disputes one thing: the current state of affairs is dangerous and cannot be left to run its own course.

Lithuania's unwillingness to accept refugees that are flooding Southern European countries shows a lack of solidarity with other EU member states, Lithuanian EU Commissioner Vytenis Povilas Andriukaitis says.

The Lithuanian Seimas Committee on Foreign Affairs has stated that solidarity to distribute refugees among European Union (EU) member states should be understood as a voluntary contribution based on a country's capabilities.

Lithuania's foreign policy is not without some ambivalence. Vilnius aspires to be a regional leader and set an example to other small countries, Lithuania demands to be treated as a respected full-fledged member of the European Union, NATO and the international community. Its own actions, however, d...

EU member states should be given the right to decide themselves whether to accept refugees from Greece and Italy and how may of them to accept, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė says.

The European Commission on Wednesday suggested relocating up to 710 refugees to Lithuania in a move aimed at resolving the Mediterranean migrant crisis.

Lithuania ranks 34th out of 38 countries in terms of conditions for migrants, according to the annual Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX 2015).

At the EU General Affairs Council meeting on 19 May in Brussels, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius discussed progress in implementing measures to tackle migratory flows in the Mediterranean Sea region adopted at a special meeting of the European Council on 23 April 2015.