Lithuania’s Labour Party opposes refugee resettlement

The Labour Party believes that the proposal of the European Commission (EC) is flawed because it does not establish the final figures of refugees to be resettled, is not part of the detailed financing plan and does not include further steps how to solve the consequences of the migration crisis. In addition, the EC proposed to revise the refugee quota every quarter, which means that EU member states would have to accept more and more refugees and revise integration and financing plans.

According to Mečislovas Zasčiurinskas, member of the Labour Party political group in the Seimas, the refugee issue raises many long-term problems for the EU and Lithuania. Therefore, it should be analysed in detail as soon as possible and strategic decisions must be adopted, ensuring safe and smooth process of refugee resettlement.

“If we vote in the Seimas on the number of refugees once, we will have to again return to this sensitive issue after several months as the flow of refugees is growing daily. Thus the problem needs a systematic approach instead of putting out fires here and there,” said the MP.

The MP emphasised that Lithuania must be particularly interested in creating a serious refugee resettlement plan because so far it has only been obediently executing top-down decisions coming from the EU which are harmful to Lithuania.

“Perhaps we could consider obedient acceptance of refugees in Lithuania if at the very start the EU distributed all the goodies equally – payouts, benefits, etc. But this is not the case, wheareas when we talk about receiving refugees we are required to show solidarity. This is unjust. We have no doubt that Lithuania must show some backbone and initiate a clear, long-term refugee resettlement plan, which in the future would benefit our country and the EU,” said the politician.