refugees

Another 28 refugees have arrived in Lithuania under the European Union (EU) program, the Migration Department said on Wednesday.

Lithuania's Interior Minister Eimutis Misiūnas and his Italian counterpart, Marco Minniti, have signed an agreement on cooperation in resettlement of refugees. The deal will enable Lithuania to interview refugees as part of security procedures in Italy.

Four families of Syrian refugees that arrived in Lithuania in June under the European Union (EU) program bypassed the Rukla refugee registration center and were moved directly to the country's biggest cities, officers in charge of their integration said.

The Lithuanian Red Cross Society's refugee and migrant integration center is opening in Lithuania's second-biggest city of Kaunas on Wednesday.

Twenty-two refugees from the Middle East were relocated to Lithuania last week under the EU's resettlement program, the Migration Department said.

Interior Minister Eimutis Misiunas says that his Italian counterpart, Marco Minniti, has agreed to allow Lithuanian officials to conduct interviews of refugees in Italy.

Some 230 Middle Eastern refugees relocated to Lithuania under the EU's resettlement program have already left the country, the daily Lietuvos Žinios reported on Friday.

Nine Eritrean refugees arrived in Lithuania this week under the EU's resettlement program, the Migration Department said on Thursday.

Lithuania's intelligence agencies have barred relocation of nine refugees under the European Union (EU) program after establishing that their presence in the country would jeopardize national security, the State Security Department said.

Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis says that Lithuania can still fulfill its commitment to accept over 1,100 refugees by the end of this year, but adds that this will not be done "at any cost".

Germany's migration authorities have notified Lithuania of its plans to send back yet another refugee to Lithuania. Although he has not yet reached Lithuania, non-governmental organizations organizing refugee integration say this could be a warning of more refugees to be sent back shortly.

The Iraqis who in December 2015 became the first refugee family relocated to Lithuania under the EU's resettlement program have lost their residence permit as they failed to return to the country from Sweden within six months.

Eight refugees from Eritrea, a country in northeastern Africa, have been relocated to Lithuania under the European Union (EU) program, the Migration Department said on Friday.

Before switching on the dictophone, Gintas Jasiulionis, elder of Rukla, a town in central Lithuania that is hosting the NATO enhanced Forward Presence battalion, asks BNS journalists to produce their press cards – he explains he wants to make sure he is not targeted by the Russian propaganda.

Refugees will be relocated from camps in Greece, Turkey or Italy directly to Lithuanian municipalities that will be willing and ready to take them in, Social Security and Labour Minister Linas Kukuraitis said on Friday.

Mayors of some of Lithuania's biggest cities fear the government's plans to move refugees directly to municipalities from April and bypass the stopover in the Rukla Refugee Reception Centre, Lietuvos Žinios daily said on Wednesday.

Lithuania's non-governmental organizations should shortly provide a list of municipalities willing to receive refugees directly from camps in Greece, Turkey or Italy, with plans to implement the new scheme starting April, says Social Security and Labour Minister Linas Kukuraitis.

Lithuania's ministers of interior affairs and social security and labour, Eimutis Misiūnas and Linas Kukuraitis, are Monday going to the Refugee Reception Centre in Rukla to inquire about refugee integration issues.