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VILNIUS, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- Lithuania's priority is to receive refugees with their families, from different Syrian regions, and preferably, speaking one of the EU official languages or one of languages of countries bordering with Lithuania, the Baltic country's officials said on Monday.
Earlier, Lithuania expected to receive the first refugees this November, however, now this process has been postponed, as Italy and Greece should compile the list of people to be relocated following the criteria established by Lithuania, Elvinas Jankevicius, Deputy Interior Minister told reporters in a press conference.
"We were visiting those countries (Greece and Italy) to check the security issues, as logistic is important; how people will be transferred, will they be escorted, how security demands will be met," Jankevicius was quoted as saying by local website vz.lt.
According to the official, after Greece and Italy have prepared the lists of people to be relocated in Lithuania, here the procedures of security and health check will start.
"We prefer to receive families from different ethnic Syrian regions," Jankevicius said.
After the lists made in Greece and Italy meet Lithuania's requirements, the country's migration specialists together with the State Security Department will travel to the Southern European countries and "implement additional security checks", the deputy minister noted.
"Now the ball is in Italy's and Greece's courts; we are waiting for the initial list. It is difficult to say when it will be compiled," he was quoted as saying by ELTA news agency.
"We were told this would be in the nearest future," he noted.
Meanwhile, Lithuania's Deputy Social Security and Labour Minister Algirdas Seselgis said in a separate comment it's too early to tell how much money will be allocated per refugee.
It was reported that the EU will allocate 6,000 euros per refugee for their journey. How much money a particular family is entitled to receive will depend on each individual case. It was earlier reported that 500-600 euros would be allocated per refugee monthly.
However, there has been much uncertainty about how the money should be distributed given that the relocated refugees could be willing to leave the accepting country for other destinations, such as Germany and Sweden.
Based on the EU decisions, Lithuania committed to resettle 1,105 refugees from countries such as Syria, Iraq and Eritrea, within two years. Enditem
