“I can confirm that 11 people have been relocated to Lithuania from Greece,” Interior Vice-Minister Justas Pankauskas told BNS on Friday morning.
The 11 people are two families brought to Lithuania under the European Union‘s (EU) refugee resettlement programme.
The first family consists of Syrian-born Palestinians without citizenship: the father, 37, is a bus driver, his wife, 34, is a housewife. They have three small sons.
The second family are Syrian citizens born in Damascus: the father, 33, is a truck driver and his wife, 33, is a hairdresser. They have a son and three daughters.
A total of 73 refugees have been relocated to Lithuania under the EU program. Lithuania has committed itself to receiving 1,105 refugees over two years, mainly from Syria and Iraq. The refugees are distributed among EU member-states to ease the burden for countries in southern Europe.
Lithuania’s neighbouring Poland and a few other Central European countries have refused to take in refugees due to security fears.
More than 250,000 people have been killed during the six years of civil war in Syria, nearly 5 million people have been displaced.
Be the first to comment