On the occassion of the International Refugee Day, on June 19 Human Rights Monitoring Institute in cooperation with the Lithuanian Chapter of Red Cross and the "In Corpore" project by the European Communities initiative EQUAL carried out an Open Day event at the Refugee Center in Pabrade.
The event featured a documentary about the Roma, followed by the discussion. Inhabitants of the center took part in a fair that included tasting of national delicacies of Chechen, Pakistani and African cuisine. The Open Day was concluded by a concert of a popular musicians “AfroBand”.
In her speech during the event, representative of HRMI Aina Damkutė noted that despite some positive changes in the legislation, integration of refugees remains problematic: “European Commission against Racism and Intolerance urges Lithuania to grant every eligible person the status of a refugee, however only few receive it, whereas most of the eligible foreigners are only provided with humanitarian aid, which is in many aspects insufficient. Regrettably, a negative attitude towards certain refugee groups remains strong and even gets worse among media, state institutions, and society" - said Aina Damkute.
© 2012 Human Rights Monitoring Institute