Lithuanian Social Security and Labour Minister Monika Navickienė and Ukrainian Social Policy Minister Maryna Lazebna have signed a bilateral agreement on cooperation in ensuring the protection of children during the war unleashed by Russia.
The two countries have agreed to cooperate in ensuring protection of rights of children coming from Ukraine without parents, their adequate representation, and promotion of their best interests, the Social Security and Labour Ministry said in a press release on Tuesday.
According to the ministry, Lithuania is the first country among those that have been accepting Ukrainian refugees to have signed such an agreement.
“We have signed a memorandum in order to protect children and ensure their rights and social guarantees in Lithuania. It also comprises a guarantee that no Ukrainian children will be adopted or moved to another country,” Navickienė said while visiting Ukraine.
“Children will only return to their home country when [we are] notified by Ukraine and provided that the conditions are safe,” she added.
Navickienė paid a visit to Ukraine together with Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė on Monday.
According to the ministry’s data, nearly 18,000 children, including more than 1,100 unaccompanied minors or children from Ukrainian child-care facilities, have arrived in Lithuania from Ukraine since the beginning of Russia’s military invasion.
The two ministers also discussed ways to improve the efficiency of providing social services to the most vulnerable Ukrainian people who had arrived in Lithuania, in particular the disabled and orphaned children, the Lithuanian ministry said.
Early in April, Lithuania’s Prosecutor General Nida Grunskienė launched a pre-trial investigation into suspected child trafficking in connection with the arrival of 43 children from Ukraine to Lithuania.
The probe was opened following allegations that several adults who arrived in Lithuania together with the children intended to take some of them to another country.
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