Hundreds of thousands could leave through Klaipeda port during evacuation – port CEO

VILNIUS – Hundreds of thousands of people could leave through the port of Klaipeda on ferries operated by the Danish-owned ferry operator DFDS and other ferries, Algis Latakas, CEO of Klaipeda State Seaport Authority, has said in response to claims by interior minister that the potential for evacuation of the country's population by sea would be very high in case of a need.

“The port of Klaipėda could transport hundreds of thousands of people out of Lithuania in case of such a need,” Latakas told reporters on Friday after a meeting with Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite.

According to him, the number of people to be evacuated would be determined by the number of days the evacuation would last.

“We have 11 large ferries and other vessels in the port which, if necessary, would take a large mass of people across the sea... We have four ferries under the Lithuanian flag and two under the flag of another state. So, if there was a concentration on transporting people rather than goods, a very large number of people, I think thousands at a time, could get on those ferries without comfort, so that they could use and be transported on those ferries,” Latakas said.

The port’s CEO stressed that the possibility of evacuating people with ships of other flags, if they were in the port at the time of the evacuation, had been discussed with the interior minister.

“How would it be possible to put people who would be evacuated on these ships,” Latakas said.

According to Bilotaite, it has been agreed with the port authority to further assess the scale of possible evacuation.

“At the technical level, we will try to calculate the potential, which is really very high,” Bilotaite said.

Latakas also said that Klaipeda port did not have a “big problem” with drug trafficking for now, but he noted that more needed to be done to demonstrate that drug trafficking control was being actively enforced.

“If you don't show the environment that the port is ready to interdict drug shipments, there is always a possibility that they will occur,” the port’s CEO said.

According to Bilotaite, the port of Klaipeda is currently used by drug traffickers “as a transit point for transshipment”.

“They are transporting narcotic substances outside the Lithuanian market,” she said.