Širinskienė urges coalition to set long-term migration policy

Agne Širinskienė, leader of the parliamentary group of the ruling Democratic Union “For Lithuania”, says the coalition needs a shared position setting out the country’s long-term approach to migration, LRT reported.

“What I miss most, perhaps, is a systemic approach. We would really like to have a broader concept of what we want to achieve with Lithuania’s migration policy,” she told LRT Radio on Friday.

She said the current approach includes ministers closing service centres to reduce migration flows and decisions about different methods of shooting at the border, which are presented as a “panacea”.

Širinskienė said the Democrats, as a coalition partner, believe migration policy should not be shaped in response to problems or high-profile events. Instead, she said, it should be guided by state planning, forecasts and data-based decisions. Frequent changes of government also make it harder to plan ahead, she added.

Debate over immigration management has grown in Lithuania, where parliament is considering several bills to change the rules on foreign nationals’ arrival, residence and employment.

As of October 1, 230,500 foreign nationals held residence permits in Lithuania, according to the Migration Department. About 109,000 had permits on the basis of employment, compared with about 175,000 at the start of the year.