Lithuanian PM: No change in refugee resettlement plans after Paris attacks

The Government Office has announced that officers are already being selected for the counter-terrorism unit. It was decided at the security meeting that the Non-Standing Crisis Management Committee will coordinate counter-terrorist activities. The Committee will be chaired by the prime minister.

“We will charge security companies that ensure safety of buildings with keeping an eye on suspicious individuals and immediately inform special services about them. Security companies working during mass events will have to tighten checks on people in order to prevent them from carrying weapons or other objects that pose danger,” Butkevičius told reporters on Monday.

One more proposal voiced during the meeting of the prime minister, the minister of the interior and the head of the State Security Department would involve connecting the network of CCTV cameras in public spaces in order to promptly identify suspects.

The prime minister emphasised that the public should be cautious when evaluating the validity of reports about terrorists having come to Europe disguised as refugees. So far the Lithuanian government does not link the issue of immigration to the events in Paris.

“I would like to reassure that when resettling refugees, not a single person will enter Lithuania if his history or documents raise even a slightest doubt. Only families with a refugee status will be relocated to Lithuania and they will be thoroughly examined,” said the prime minister.