News

On 7 September, Lithuania’s Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Mantvydas Bekešius and the British Minister of State for Immigration Robert Goodwill had a telephone conversation to discuss an attack on Lithuanians in Northern Ireland. Lithuania’s Foreign Vice-Minister expressed his concerns over the incident and requested the British Minister to take a personal interest in the investigation, and to maintain ties with responsible authorities.

Bekešius has also requested the British Minister if it was possible to inform him and the Embassy of Lithuania in the United Kingdom about the on-going investigation. Lithuania’s Foreign Vice-Minister expressed hope that the perpetrators would soon be brought to justice.

Goodwill said that the UK institutions were not yet sure whether it was a hate crime against another ethnicity, but the British Minister assured Bekešius that he himself and the law enforcement officials in the United Kingdom took this very seriously.

Lithuania’s Foreign Vice-Minister informed the British representative that the day before, on 6 September, he had a telephone conversation with one of the Lithuanians who lived in the house damaged by the gunfire. According to the Lithuanian nationals, the residents were frightened, but they were now feeling well and were going to be questioned and to cooperate with the law enforcement officials in the UK. Bekešius said that Lithuanian authorities were ready to help and urged the Lithuanian citizen to contact him directly or the Lithuanian Embassy in the UK if necessary. According to the interlocutor, the four citizens were not injured as a result of the incident.

About 10 possible hate crimes against Lithuanian nationals are known to the Embassy of Lithuania, 5 of which are being investigated by the police. Other incidents have not been officially reported to the police by Lithuanian citizens.