Lithuania to take six asylum seekers

Lithuania will be taking six asylum seekers from Malta and will also cover the cost of their transport.

The Department of Information said yesterday this issue was taken up by members of the Foreign Affairs and of the European Affairs Committees of the Lithuanian Parliament following strong representations by a delegation from the Maltese Parliament's Standing Committee on Foreign and European Affairs led by Jason Azzopardi during an official visit to Lithuania last June.

The DOI said the Maltese Foreign and European Affairs Committee appreciated the efforts made by its Lithuanian counterparts and noted that this is a concrete example of parliamenatary diplomacy supplementing the strenuous efforts of the Maltese government for burden sharing among EU members states.

The committee hoped that this gesture of solidarity made by Lithuania, together with those already made by Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands, will encourage other EU small and large member states to participate in sharing the burden that Malta is being subjected to with the continuous arrival of irregular immigrants.