Roundup: Lithuania debating on taking up larger number of refugees

Lithuania will probably have to accept more migrants than anticipated, the country's officials admitted on Friday, reacting to news from Brussels that the European Commission planned to redistribute 160,000 asylum seekers arriving in Greece, Italy and other member states.

"I think the designated number of those migrants for Lithuania might be increased, but I cannot say what that number will be today as it is too early to say," Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius said on Friday in an interview with local broadcaster Lietuvos Rytas TV (LRT).

The migrants received in Lithuania will be provided with all necessary means to integrate into local society, Butkevicius said in a separate interview with radio broadcaster Ziniu Radijas.

"It is the problem within the entire EU, thus we, as an EU member state, must show solidarity when sharing migrants' quotas," the head of the government noted.

However, the country's capabilities must also be taken into account, Butkevicius stressed. He mentioned Lithuania was receiving people from Ukraine as well, a factor that should be taken into account when calculating the number of refugees coming to Lithuania.

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite stressed Lithuania was ready to look for a joint solution of "the rising critical situation related to the migrant inflow" with all European countries.

"All countries must be understanding and in solidarity with other countries that have this major problem and respond to Germany's invitation to look for a more constructive solution to the problem," Grybauskaite told LRT earlier this week.

"We cannot be indifferent," she underlined.

Based on the currently agreed upon migrants' quota system, Lithuania might be asked to take in up to 2,146 refugees, ELTA news agency reported.

Overall, the European Commission intends to relocate around 160,000 refugees from the Middle East and Africa to various locations in the EU, several media sources based in Brussels reported on Friday.

So-called quota systems are likely to be based on the size of a country's population, its gross domestic product, unemployment rate, and the number of refugees it already hosts.

The same principle was employed during the EU negotiations this summer when Lithuania agreed to accept 325 refugees in the next two years, mostly Syrians. The first of them are due to arrive in January 2016.

New EU proposals to relocate refugees piling into Greece, Italy and Hungary are due on Sept. 9.

PUBLIC DEBATES

The Mediterranean migrant crisis has become a basis for heated debates in Lithuania, a mostly Catholic country.

Residents' opinions vary from urging to accept as many as asylum seekers as possible in order to show solidarity, to resistance due to fears based on cultural and religious differences and the country's economic resources available for migrants' supplies.

"Would I accept a migrant in my own house" has been one of the most often featured themes on local social networks recently.

Petras Austrevicius, Lithuanian member of European Parliament (MEP), urged the country not to wait until new quotas "arrive from Brussels."

"I believe migrants are not firewood available to redistribute; we can offer our own proposal based on our good will," Austrevicius said in his statement.

"We can announce we are ready to accept more than 325 refugees in two years; based on the current criteria, it is barely five persons for each Lithuanian municipality," the MEP said.

In his view, the country should integrate the migrants and offer them jobs that locals are currently reluctant to perform.

According to findings of the Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX) calculated by a research group based in Brussels and Barcelona, Lithuania's current policies are overall slightly unfavorable for integration of current and future immigrants in terms of labor market flexibility, issuance of long-term residence permissions, etc.

Based on MIPEX 2015, Lithuania ranks only 34 out of 38 countries, below average for Central Europe in terms of migrant integrations policies. Endit