Algirdas Butkevičius
Politics

PM says Lithuania will manage to integrate refugees

Lithuania will manage to successfully integrate refugees from the Middle East, Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius believes, but said that the process will present many challenges. […]

No Picture
European Union

Refugee resettlement stalling: European Parliament debates binding obligations including Lithuania

Policymakers increasingly admit that Europe’s refugee relocation mechanism is stalling – countries like Lithuania feel it first-hand. Lithuania’s participation has not started on a high note – the only family (four persons) relocated under the mechanism is already suing the country for granting legal protection rather than refugee status. […]

Linas Linkevičius
Foreign affairs

Linkevičius: 2016 will test European unity

Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Linas Linkevičius and LRT.lt Editor-in-Chief Vladimiras Laučius sat down to talk about some of the greatest issues challenging the unity of the European Union. The distribution of power among the EU’s institutions, the Schengen zone, and the future of the refugees coming to Europe will all be tested in 2016. […]

A memorial
Society

15-year-old Lithuanian boy killed in Sweden may have been targeted for dispute with refugee

The tragic stabbing on 12:45 Monday of Arminas Pileckas, a 15-year-old Lithuanian boy living in Sweden, by a 14-year-old boy while the two were at school may potentially bring the discussion about refugees back to the forefront of the Lithuanian public’s attention. Though the Swedish police have yet to confirm the 14-year-old suspect’s name or identity, several Swedish media sites, as well as what is allegedly a video of the altercation that led to the stabbing, indicate that the suspect may have been a Syrian refugee. […]

Refugees and immigrants
Opinion

What Lithuanians really think about immigration

Lithuanian residents would prefer to receive immigrants of the same ethnic group or race with barely 13 percent wanting to accept immigrants that are of another race or ethnic group. A survey performed by the Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) revealed these and other insights into the Lithuanian public’s opinions regarding immigrants. […]

Society

Over 100,000 emigrants have returned to Lithuania over the past decade

On International Migrants Day (18 December), Statistics Lithuania announced that, over the last decade, 126,000 new residents immigrated into Lithuania while 438,500 emigrated. From 2005 to 2014, the percentage of emigrants of ages 20-39 grew from 51.9 to 59.2 percent. In 2014, as many as 82 percent of working-age people had not worked for a year or longer before leaving the country. […]

Refugees in Rotterdam
Opinion

Opinion: Let’s learn from others’ mistakes on refugee integration

“We’re taking 1,105 refugees only and no more. We’ll house them in closed off areas and then ask them to leave. That’s how Lithuania will resist the EU ‘Diktat’, defend its sovereignty and avoid the trouble plaguing Europe”. That’s the talk of certain politicians who have remained silent about the fact that, in recent years, the number of foreigners has risen sharply without a single refugee having been accepted and with immigration challenges still to be faced. […]

No Picture
European Union

Lithuania will not accept additional refugee quotas, president says

Attending the European Council on Thursday, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė said that Lithuania would not participate in the newly suggested refugee resettlement from Turkey scheme until the earlier quota of 1,105 asylum seekers for Lithuania is completed. […]