“Based on this month’s data, 224,800 foreign citizens reside in Lithuania. Of them, 62,474 are citizens of Belarus. The number of Belarusian citizens arriving in Lithuania in recent months has slightly decreased (&) compared with the start of last year,” she told public radio LRT on Monday.
According to Gudzinskaitė, companies are shifting their attention to workers from other countries that pose fewer risks, such as Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kirgizstan. In addition, some Belarusians opt not to move to Lithuania due to screening carried out by the Migration Department and the State Security Department (VSD).
Since November 2022, when Russian and Belarusian citizens had to fill in a special questionnaire concerning the Russian invasion of Ukraine, 1,644 Belarusians and 397 Russians were deemed as posing a threat to Lithuania’s national security.
Restrictions for Russians and Belarusians may be tightened further this year. Conservative MP Laurynas Kasčiūnas intends to table proposals to cancel residence permits for Russian and Belarusian citizens who regularly travel to their home countries.
Parliament had adopted a law imposing restrictions on Russian and Belarusian citizens due to Russian invasion of Ukraine and the role of Belarus in it. The law restricts the issuance of visas and residence permits, the right to purchase real estate etc.