The European Court of Human Rights’ rulings might encourage some lawyers or organizations to seek financial gain and this way unconsciously assist the Minsk regime, Laurynas Kasciunas, chairman of the Lithuanian parliamentary Committee on National Security and Defense, says. In his interview with the national radio LRT on Wednesday, KasciunasContinue Reading
As Latvia prepares to introduce a bottle deposit system in 2022, the first five bottle deposit return machines have been erected in five shops in Riga and Ventspils. This week, the company SIA Tomra Collection Latvia has begun setting up bottle deposit return machines called ‘taromāts’ in Latvian in theContinue Reading
Lithuania’s authorities are on Tuesday starting to move the most vulnerable groups of migrants to a new camp in Rukla, a town in the central district of Jonava. “Today, the first 40 will reach the new camp in Rukla,” Social Security and Labor Minister Monika Navickiene told LRT Radio. TheContinue Reading
Some 562 irregular migrants have had their applications for political asylum in Lithuania examined and rejected, and 130 of them have left the country since the start of the year, the Interior Ministry said on Tuesday. The ministry published statistics showing that around 2,400 people have been turned away sinceContinue Reading
Clement Beaune, the French minister for European affairs, has said that the European Union must take Lithuania’s experience into account when discussing common migration and asylum rules. He called on the bloc to accelerate discussions on this issue. “Belarus is using this as a testing ground for our solidarity. SoContinue Reading
Lithuanians do not see one solution to migration flow from Belarus, while building a fence was seen as the most effective solution according to a recent opinion poll, Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT and Gytis Pankūnas report. Over 4 000 migrants, mostly from Iraq, have entered Lithuania in 2021 moving intoContinue Reading
In Lithuania, the emergency camps set up by authorities to hundreds of people, who have illegally crossed into the country from Belarus, have scarce and inhumane living conditions a volunteer has warned. The Interior Minister has spoken of current focus to improve living conditions vulnerable groups, while others have toContinue Reading
Dunja Mijatovic, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, has called on Lithuania to respect its international human rights commitments in the current migration crisis, and Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte has said in response that irregular migrants attempting to crossing into the country can hardly be considered refugees. “ItContinue Reading
The Ministry of the Interior will propose an increase of Finland’s refugee quota to 2,000 in the government’s budget negotiations, Interior Minister Maria Ohisalo (Green) has told Yle. Finland’s current refugee quota is 1,050 people. The quota system shares out refugees among EU member states according to a calculation basedContinue Reading
The Lithuanian Migration Department expects to process all asylum applications from migrants who have entered the country from Belarus so far within three months, the authority’s director said on Tuesday. “Over 200 asylum applications have been processed to date, and we are planning to process all applications that have beenContinue Reading