15 Iraqis arrived to Lithuania on 3 July at the invitation of Caritas and Vilnius parish community.
The foreigners will be immediately accommodated with local families rather than in the Refugees Reception Centre in Rukla. In the next few months, they will be attending intensive Lithuanian language and history courses. From autumn, three Iraqi children will be attending a Catholic school in Vilnius. At the same, officials will be arranging documents for their permanent residence and work in Lithuania.
One of the foreigners, Klara Bazar Banyameen Shamoon, said that some of her relatives and acquaintances were killed by the Islamic state terrorists due to their religion.
"We were brutally persecuted by the terrorists. The main reason was that we are Catholics. But we are sticking to our religion and will never abandon our Christianity. The main reason that pushed us away from Iraq was that they hate us there and our lives were in great danger. Bombings there never end, there is no chance to go for a walk or to go to church," she said.
