Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson Birutė Sabatauskaitė has called for an investigation into the situation of refugees from Ukraine in Lithuania.
Her office has recommended that the probe be conducted by the Ministry of Social Security and Labour and the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport.
“It would be extremely important to initiate a broader investigation that could identify the challenges faced by people arriving in Lithuania from Ukraine,” Sabatauskaitė told a news conference on Friday.
According to her, the probe should look into the situation of Ukrainians in Lithuania from various angles to find out about their experiences in the labour market, accessing services, healthcare, education and other areas.
“This should be done in terms of gender, age, disability, social situation, language and other aspects. [The probe] should also measure certain attitudes in new groups of the Lithuanian population toward equal opportunities in general,” she said.
The authorities now have only fragmentary information about the situation of Ukrainian refugees.
According to Sabatauskaitė, there are signals that Ukrainians are having difficulty renting housing and finding jobs.
“One of the challenges we see when we receive complaints from people is the availability of housing,” she said.
“Ukrainians, like other population groups, often face [problems with] the availability of housing for rent because they have children, and some [landlords] do not want to let an apartment to Ukrainians.”
The ombudsperson noted that under the current law, Ukrainian citizens’ complaints about discrimination on the grounds of nationality would not be examined.
“They could apply on various other grounds, but if they suffer on the grounds of citizenship, the law covers only EU or EEA citizens and their family members,” she said.
Official statistics show that over 76,000 people have come to Lithuania from Ukraine since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
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