The aim of the Information Centre of the Asylum Affairs Division of the Migration Department under the Ministry of Internal Affairs is to provide information to the employees that examine asylum cases on asylum applicants’ countries of origin or third countries, through which they arrive in Lithuania.
The information on situation in asylum applicants’ countries of origin or third countries is selected and evaluated in accordance with the Common EU Guidelines for processing Country of Origin Information (2008), which require that information is up-to-date, accurate, objective and reliable. While replying to information queries on political, security and human rights situation in countries of origin or describing situation in the third countries, specialists of the Information centre produce reports. These documents contain requested information accurately indicating quoted sources in the footnotes.
The reports are stored in an electronic database and are accessible not only to asylum decision-makers but to other staff of the Migration Department, responsible for taking decisions on the foreigners’ legal status in the Republic of Lithuania, to courts, lawyers, the State Security Department and NGO’s.
In processing country of origin information, subscribed traditional and internet media sources are used, as well as European Union documents, which are stored in the library of the Migration Department, national and foreign practical guides, academic publications on countries of origin, asylum, refugee rights and migration.
There is a library in the Asylum Affairs Division. There are reference books, dictionaries, maps, atlases, thematic and specialized publications in Lithuanian and foreign languages. The publications are available both to the employees of the Migration Department and students of higher education establishments and specialists of other institutions.