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According to Evelina Gudzinskaitė, head of the Migration Department, from now on not only foreigners who permanently reside in the country or have a valid work permit, but also those who will receive national work visas will be able to come to Lithuania.
“Belarusians and Ukrainians will be able to come if they receive a national work visa. They will have to apply at the Lithuanian Embassy or at visa centers, which issue national visas for work purposes,” E. Gudzinskaitė told BNS.
“The facilitation is that it will be possible to obtain work visas,” he added.
Vidmantas Balkūnas photo / 15min / Evelina Gudzinskaitė
The representative of the Minister of Health, Lina Bušinskaitė, announced that after the end of the quarantine, workers from third countries will no longer have to isolate themselves for 14 days upon arrival in Lithuania, and self-isolation will be of a recommended nature.
However, she says that if people don’t follow this recommendation, those who don’t follow it may have legal responsibility.
“Isolation will be recommended after quarantine is lifted, it is no longer mandatory,” L. Bušinskaitė told BNS.
“You should know that if your failure will infect others or cause health damage, administrative and legal liability may be imposed. Therefore, we recommend that you follow the recommendations when you arrive in Lithuania, and do not rush to work immediately,” emphasized.
E. Gudžinskaitė says that it is currently impossible to predict how many workers from Belarus and Ukraine will go to Lithuania after the end of the quarantine, where the epidemiological situation is much worse than in the Baltic countries.
“The economic situation must be evaluated if the employers have survived or not, but if we calculate that the economy did not undergo quarantine and everything continues as before, then I think there will be more than a thousand foreigners, there may be between 5 and 8 thousand, who will apply for national visas “said the head of the Migration Department.
Carriers had no major disruptions and do not predict an influx
Mečislovas Atroškevičius, head of the Linava National Carriers Association, says that due to quarantine restrictions, carriers did not experience any major problems hiring employees.
According to him, this was because most Ukrainians and Belarusians working in the Lithuanian transport sector have a permanent residence permit, so they were allowed to cross the border.
“During the quarantine period, we had no significant restrictions, our employees were subject to certain exceptions in accordance with the procedure. We came to us from Belarus and Ukraine, only those who had temporary residence permits in Lithuania and work visas had no problem coming to Lithuania, ”M. Atroškevičius told BNS.
“It may have been a problem for newcomers who wanted to come get new visas.” Our consulates were temporarily closed and no new documents were accepted. But those who had employment contracts came to Lithuania as a permanent workplace, so they were not subject to restrictions, ”he said.
According to him, the abolition of quarantine may be relevant for newcomers, but its demand should not be very high due to the slowdown in the economy.
“It may be relevant for new employees, but you see that the situation in the market is such that there is a constant need for employees, but right now there are very few jobs.” Until the market recovers, there may not be a great need for new employees, “said the carrier’s representative.
Atroškevičius has no doubt that if there are still new arrivals from Belarus and Ukraine, the carriers will manage all the risks.
“We really get recommendations, we follow them, we distribute those things to our members,” he emphasized.
Builders: few workers left
The situation was similar in the construction sector: Dalius Gedvilas, head of the Lithuanian Builders Association, says that as soon as the quarantine was announced, only a small part of the workers left the country, and those who had visas for work remained in Lithuania.
Sigismund Gedvila photo / 15min / Construction
“Most foreigners who had work visas stayed in Lithuania, because apparently it was not easy to get a visa and it was a job, so they worked,” D. Gedvilas told BNS.
According to him, many private construction projects are currently suspended, and companies have only worked on those projects that were started before.
Therefore, as D. Gedvilas explains, there is a risk that if these projects are completed in late summer and no new projects appear, not only will the country’s construction sector not need new employees, but there will be a surplus of builders in general.
“If there are no new projects, at the end of the year we will see that there is a surplus of builders in Lithuania or the builders themselves will migrate in search of work in Germany, which is currently strongly stimulating its construction market.” “Despite Brexit, we still believe that some of it may go to Britain itself,” says the head of the association.
“In Lithuania, if there are no concrete actions, we will see a decrease and companies fear hiring new people,” he added.
According to D Gedvilas, relatively few employees in Belarus and Ukraine work in the Lithuanian construction sector: between 100 and 110 thousand people worked in the entire sector at the end of last year. Legally employed Belarusian and Ukrainian people, workers amounted to only around 2,5 thousand.
Ensuring construction safety is relatively easy, he says, since much of the work is done outdoors, and the builders themselves have learned quarantine lessons.
“To avoid putting a pandemic on the work teams, the builders are really taking certain steps, they share the individual means of using hygiene,” said D. Gedvilas.
“If there is an epidemic in that team, the contract may not be fulfilled in practice, one or even several contracts, builders and managers who are afraid of this, pay close attention, there are even orders that prohibit public transport, require separate cars ” he said.
Belarus and Ukraine have yet to control the spread of the virus, with around 600-700 new viruses confirmed in recent days.
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