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09 November 2016

Lithuania: Refugees struggle to access basic services

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While Lithuania continues to resettle refugees from Turkey, the country faces capacity issues as refugees' access to basic services such as education and housing is reported to be poor.

Housing

Landlords are reluctant to the idea of renting their flats to foreigners. To face this challenge, representatives of the Rukla Refugee Reception Centre called municipalities to cooperate in order to communicate available accomodations that could be suitable for families waiting at the Centre. In the meantime, the staff has no other choice than going through ads for private housing. Read more

Education

Experts from non-governmental organisations are pointing out shortcomings in the provision of education services aiming at reducing language barriers, increasing intercultural competences or easing integration in schools.

These and other challenges have been analysed in a comprehensive research report by the European Migration Network (EMN) and International Organization for Migration on the reception of relocated and resettled refugees in Lithuania, and their integration prospects. This difficulties might have motivated the departure of 35 refugees from Rukla Refugee Reception Centre to Western Europe, which Lithuanian vice-minister of Interior Justas Pankauskas has commented by stating that integration benefits will no longer be allocated to them, if they don't come back after one month.

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Lithuania
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Posted by
Karolis Zibas
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