refugees

Refugees fleeing conflicts in the Middle East is not a problem just for Europe to solve, says US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Benjamin G. Ziff.

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis has criticized the European Commission's (EC) proposal to penalize countries that refuse to take in migrants. Sanctions do not help solve anything, Iohannis said on Wednesday in Vilnius.

Abdul Basir Yoususi, an Afghan national who once worked as interpreter for Lithuanian troops in Afghanistan's Ghor Province and was relocated to the Baltic state a month ago, has been granted refugee status.

Lithuania has promised to accept more than 1,000 refugees over the next two years but has barely received a handful of asylum seekers. Though it is not believed that they will start arriving by the hundred this year, the number of those interested in coming to Lithuania is increasing.

Europe must learn from its mistakes and integrate refugees according to the principles of the society as a whole, Geert Bourgeois, the minister-president of Flanders, one of the three regions of Belgium, said in Vilnius on Tuesday.

Refugees resettled in Lithuania have started looking for job, says the country's Labour Exchange which set up a special unit to work with them.

Refugees were the focus of Monday's meeting between Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaitė and Vatican's Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

Lithuanian member of the European Parliament Petras Auštrevičius is sheltering a refugee family from Iraq for half a year, Lietuvos Žinios daily reports.

The European Commission's proposals to automatically relocate migrants to EU member states and impose financial sanctions for refusing to take them in do not contribute to solving the migrant crisis, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė said on Wednesday.

Lithuania will not respond to an asylum request via YouTube video from an Afghani refugee saying he has worked with Lithuanian troops in Afghanistan, despite having flown in another Afghani interpreter who made his plea several weeks before.

A second Afghani refugee has made plea for asylum in Lithuania via a youtube video. The country's defence minister says, however, that not all Afghanis who worked with Lithuanian troops deserve to be relocated.

A Syrian family of five have arrived in Lithuania from Turkey under the European Union's (EU) resettlement programme.

A Syrian couple relocated to Lithuania under the EU's refugee relocation program have been granted refugee status.

An Iraqi family relocated to Lithuania under the EU's refugee relocation program have decided not to appeal a court ruling refusing to grant them refugee status.

President Dalia Grybauskaitė, who is visiting Germany this week, says that Lithuania sticks to its position that the European Union cannot force its member-states accept refugees against their will.

Lithuania could become the new entry point for migrants coming to the European Union and the country's authorities must prepare for the potentiality, says the new minister of the interior.

The story of Abdul Basir Yoususi, an Afghani interpreter who used to work with Lithuanian forces in Ghor Province but had to flee his country for fear of the Taliban's retribution, introduced a new angle into the refugee debate in Lithuania.

Local interpreters who worked with NATO troops in Afghanistan knew they were risking their lives and the compensation many of them received turned out to be inadequate, especially after the Alliance pulled out.

Lithuanian politician-businessman Antanas Guoga has pledged to give a job to Abdul Basir Yoususi, an Afghani refugee who caught the nation's attention last week with a youtube video where he asked, in Lithuanian, for a refuge in the country.