Lithuania’s State Security Department to screen refugees

According to Interior Vice-Minister Elvinas Jankevičius, representatives of the United Nations are being trained for the selection process and specialists from the Lithuanian State Security Department will also assist.

“It’s a dangerous world around us and we are aware of those threats, evaluate and feel them. Therefore, we will definitely go through a multi-step selection procedure, and it won’t be easy for people with some other goals in their minds to slip through,” Jankevičius told BNS on Thursday.

In his words, the UN and the State Security Department will help prepare questionnaires for refugees and the department will also run database checks on refugees.

“We are working closely with the United Nations. Their representatives came several days ago and they have a lot of resettlement experience. We had a training session yesterday,” Jankevičius said. “The State Security Department will also help us on this issue. They will consult us. Those people will undergo checks on our and international databases.”

On Wednesday, the European Commission (EC) proposed that Lithuania accept an additional number of 780 refugees who are currently in Hungary, Greece and Italy. Lithuania had already agreed to receive 325 refugees.