Lithuanian parliament speaker: Dividing refugees by quotas ‘immoral’

“Europe should address the issue in a systematic manner rather than simply divide the whole number, the issue should be solved clearly in the countries where the problems originate. If this is about war zones, then they are war refugees, if they are economic refugees, it is an entirely different thing. Economic refugees will always head for wealthy countries and probably do not need the intermediate stops, whereas war refugees want a safe environment and social guarantees – the problems need to be separated, we cannot put them together and simply distribute them. People are not something that we can simply divide among ourselves,” Graužiniene told the Žinių Radijas news radio on Wednesday morning.

“Dividing people by quotas is even immoral, this is something European leaders should understand,” said the parliamentary speaker.

In her words, Lithuania should first of all estimate its actual hosting potential, also in the light of the possible increase in the number of people fleeing Ukraine that the country may have to accept. The decision on the number of refugees should be endorsed by the parliament, as it has to do directly with the budget funds, said Graužinienė.