Press release, 28 September 2015
Loreta Graužinienė, Speaker of the Seimas, was quite optimistic during her visit to the Refugee Reception Centre in Rukla which is to accommodate refugees. The leader of the Seimas showed interest in the plans to integrate, at the initial stage, arriving people, whom Lithuania had undertaken to take in over the next two years, and to cooperate with institutions that are to promote and control further integration processes.
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Photos of the Seimas Office (author Olga Posaškova) |
When discussing today’s challenges of addressing refugee issues, Loreta Graužinienė highlighted the necessity for coherent inter-institutional cooperation.
“It is important that the Commission for Refugee Issues, which has been set up by the Government, should urgently and systematically address the matters pertaining to the organisation and implementation of refugee resettlement and integration. In my view, the Commission has been established far too late,” said the Speaker of the Seimas.
Loreta Graužinienė believes that even though preparations are underway to accept refugees, a lot of questions still remain unanswered and they hamper the preparation process. The questions relate to such matters as the exact number of refugees that will be brought at the first stage, the number of reception stages, marital status of arriving people, their religion and other relevant aspects.
The Speaker of the Seimas also talked to migrants from Afghanistan, Ukraine, Russia, Iraq, Syria and Sri Lanka living in the Refugee Reception Centre. Mrs Graužinienė was pleasantly surprised that the majority of them spoke Lithuanian quite well, all attesting to the success of the social integration programme carried out in the centre. The Speaker of the Seimas also took a look at the living conditions of refugees, accommodation and leisure facilities.
Neringa Mikėnaitė, Adviser to the Speaker of the Seimas, tel. +370 5 239 6344, mob. +370 698 42 759
