Lithuania continues to oppose permanent EU refugee resettlement mechanism

Gediminas Kirkilas, Benediktas Juodka
DELFI / Valdas Kopūstas

Kirkilas, a social democrat, said: “There is a continuing pressure for a permanent mechanism, with which Central Europe, Lithuania, the Baltic states and Poland disagree. Why do we disagree? Because if this information gets to the refugees, they will come here. Officers from the Ministry of the Interior who have visited refugee camps [in Greece and Italy] say that the refugee rush began exactly when they got the message from Europe saying they are welcome. We say that we accept refugees, not economic migrants, but war refugees.”

According to the chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Benediktas Juodka, the meeting thought it was important to integrate refugees as soon as possible rather than keeping them separate form the society.

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