Resettled in the Baltics, refugees flee for wealthier lands

In early November, 34 Syrian and Iraqi refugees boarded buses heading for Germany from Lithuania, the country where they had been resettled. No one expects them to return.

Only a tiny number of refugees from war in the Middle East have been sent to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, among the European Union's poorest countries. The Baltic states were nobody's first choice.

"When we left from Turkey to Greece, our final goal was Germany or Holland," said Mohamed Kamel Haj Ali, 52, once a shopkeeper in Syria, who for the time being still lives in Rukla in Lithuania.

"But the land route from Greece was already closed, so we had no choice but to enter the relocation program, which brought us here."

Seventy-two out of the 90 Syrians and Iraqis resettled to Lithuania from Greece or Turkey, and granted refugee status under its EU quota, have since left, according to official figures.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-baltics-idUSKBN13N0RY