“If we look at the number of call-up papers that were sent out to young men to check their health before service, then we will see that many of them are abroad and the time they emigrated coincided with drafting,” said PM Bukevičius on the radio Žinių Radijas on Thursday.
The State Defence Council decided to reintroduce compulsory conscription in late February this year and parliament approved the move in March. Statistics Lithuania reports that, over the first five months of 2015, 19,000 people officially left the country, or 5,000 more than during the same time a year ago.
Currently, 1,600 troops are performing their mandatory military service in the Armed Forces of Lithuania. Nearly all of them are volunteers.
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