Vice-Minister Jankevičius briefed the Committee on Lithuania's contribution in assisting Europe in dealing with the migration crisis. He reiterated that under the EU's relocation mechanism, an Iraqi family of four was transferred from Greece to Lithuania. The family has been living in Vilnius since 1 March 2016. Unfortunately, the scheme for relocating asylum seekers from Italy and Greece under the set quotas did not work efficiently. Only 611 refugees from the agreed 160,000 were transferred to 15 Member States.
When addressing the issue of institutional support to Italy and Greece, the Vice-Minister informed of one Lithuanian expert on the Dublin Regulation, who would serve in the Greek Asylum Service in Athens until the end of March 2016, and of seven Lithuanian border guards currently deployed in FRONTEX operations in Greece, Bulgaria and Italy. The Vice-Minister also notified of the plans to deploy 13 Lithuanian officers to contribute to the FRONTEX-initiated Rapid Border Intervention Teams (RABIT) in Greece. Until March 2016, a total of 50 police officers were sent in groups to Slovenia for the maintenance of public order. If required, Lithuania could provide winter tents, electric heaters for tents, and folding beds.
The Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs highlighted the external aspects of settlement of the migration crisis. They include settlement of the military conflict in Syria with possible involvement of Russia; importance of EU-Turkey relations; and cooperation of the EU with Africa and other countries receiving refugees from war zones. When addressing the issue of the EU-led mission in the Mediterranean EUNAVFOR MED, known as Operation Sophia, the Vice-Minister stressed its significance to monitoring and detaining migrant smugglers and saving lives at sea. Over 9,000 migrants were rescued by February 2016. It is important for the EU to develop relations with third countries concerning readmission, because not all countries are willing to cooperate in taking back their own nationals. NATO's engagement is also crucial in combating migrant smuggling through patrolling operations in the Aegean Sea.
The meeting touched upon a very relevant issue of proper functioning of the Schengen Area. Audronius Ažubalis, Deputy Chair of the Committee, emphasised the importance of ensuring proper functioning of the Schengen Agreement and stressed that countries unable to protect their own and, at the same time, external EU borders and unwilling to cooperate with rapid reaction teams under the aegis of FRONTEX have to be suspended from the Schengen Agreement to guarantee that the rest of Europe would enjoy free movement of persons without enforcing restrictions on internal borders.
The participants of the meeting wondered what would happen if 1,000 migrants approached the eastern borders of the Republic of Lithuania. Renatas Požėla, Commander of the State Border Guard Service under the Ministry of the Interior, informed that officers simulate and prepare for various potential provocative scenarios, carry out table simulations, plan exercises, and collect criminal intelligence. The Commander of the State Border Guard Service was happy about the smooth inter-institutional cooperation with the Belarusian border guard services. Although Vice-Minister Jankevičius believed such scenarios were highly unlikely, he did not, however, rule out that when required, eastern EU borders controlled by Lithuania could be closed if uncontrolled refugee flows approached it.
The Committee discussed the European Commission's proposals on strengthening the protection of external borders and on EU-level harmonisation of travel documents for the return of third-country nationals to their country of origin. The Committee expressed its unanimous support for the Republic of Lithuania's position on the proposals.
