According to Evelina Gudzinskaitė, it illustrates Lithuania’s readiness to continue the implementation of the European Union’s refugee resettlement program. Migration specialists are set to travel to Turkey this summer to assess asylum seekers’ eligibility to resettlement to Lithuania.
“The Migration Department is already organizing our staff’s trip to Turkey to carry out checks on asylum seekers. If everything turns right, asylum seekers might come to Lithuania in the fall,” the director of the Migration Department told BNS Lithuania.
In 2015, Lithuania made a commitment to accept over 1,000 asylum seekers to facilitate the migration burden faced by Italy and Greece. Part of refugees is being resettled from Turkey.
Since then, 468 refugees have come to Lithuania but the majority of them later left for richer Western European countries. The last time migrants were brought to Lithuania was last December.
Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė said last week Lithuania would continue the refugee resettlement program as it has fulfilled only half of its quota.