Lithuanian authorities have received an increased number of enquiries after invitations for Bangladeshis to come work in Lithuania started circulating online. The job ads falsely claim that there are no difficulties for foreigners to get a job in the country.
“It is the easiest to obtain a visa in Lithuania out of all European countries. It accepts 98.7 percent of applications,” reads one of the adverts inviting Bangladeshis to come to Lithuania. Other Facebook pages also say that it is a great opportunity to get a job as a waiter, shop assistant, or cleaner in the country.
There are also videos of foreigners explaining salaries and other advantages of getting a job in Lithuania. Some videos are actually shot in Lithuania, but others feature images of Poland or Croatia.
It seems too good to be true, but there are plenty of people who fall into the trap.
“If we compare it with the previous month when we received 173 enquiries from foreign nationals about the possibility of getting a job in Lithuania, when October began, it was as if the activator was switched on, and there were 400 enquiries on Monday alone,” says Liudas Dapkus, a spokesperson for the Employment Service.
According to him, foreigners send enquiries through all possible channels, including Facebook, Instagram, and email, and ask if they could work as taxi or truck drivers, electricians, or farmers in Lithuania. Most of the enquiries come from Bangladesh, but there are also many from Pakistan, India, Nepal, and Vietnam.
The Migration Department points out, however, that getting a job in Lithuania is not as easy as the foreigners are being told.
“Our immigration rules are quite favourable, but we are not the ones who are handing out permits to everyone, that’s not the case,” says Evelina Gudzinskaitė, head of the Migration Department.
The situation is similar to the migrant flows, orchestrated by the Belarusian regime, according to Viktoras Daukšas, head of debunk.org.
“It was then managed from Lukashenko’s office. It is too early to say whether they are connected to this situation as well, but the fact is that there are non-transparent ads and pages that have nothing to do with the agencies,” he says.
According to the experts, it is not yet possible to say whether the aim of these ads is just to make a profit and collect money from gullible Bangladeshis, or something else.
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