Grybauskaite - Lithuania should accept over 1,000 refugees

  • 2015-09-09
  • BNS/TBT Staff/VILNIUS

Wednesday September 9, saw Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite agree with the European Commission's proposal that Lithuania should accept over 1,000 people affected by the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean by 2017.

"It is the optimum number Lithuania is capable of accepting over two years," Grybauskaite told journalists at the Lithuanian parliament.

Her comments come after Brussels’ latest suggestion that Lithuania should receive 1,105 asylum-seekers from countries such as Syria, Iraq and Eritrea, over the next two years.

In summer 2015, Lithuania committed to receiving 325 affected refugees.

However, September 9 saw the EC propose the country accepts an additional 780 refugees, who are currently in Hungary, Greece and Italy. 

Under Brussels' new plan, European Union member-states will have to resettle 160,000 people, an issue to be discussed by interior ministers next Monday.

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