The Consulate Office of the Republic of Lithuania in Sri Lanka has warned the public to beware of fraudsters demanding money while falsely promising jobs in Lithuania.

Issuing a statement, the Consulate said it has received numerous complaints that individuals and agents are misleading Sri Lankans by claiming employment can be secured in Lithuania on a tourist visa. 

The Consulate stressed that such promises are illegal and urged citizens not to deposit money into personal accounts or pay anyone claiming to arrange jobs abroad under these circumstances.

The Consulate emphasized that Sri Lankans seeking overseas employment must use only legally approved procedures and obtain information through agencies registered with the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment. All details should be verified through official channels before making payments.

“We continuously monitor information regarding fraudulent job promises and always act to raise awareness to prevent the public’s money, safety, and future from being put at risk,” Director of Consular, Diplomatic and Political Affairs, Public Relations and Communications, Kanchana Kodithuwakku, said, commenting on the matter.

He added that the Consulate works closely with the Lithuanian Embassy in New Delhi and is committed to guiding Sri Lankans toward higher education, legal employment, and other lawful projects in Lithuania. Protecting citizens from fraudsters remains a top priority.

The Consulate Office of the Republic of Lithuania in Sri Lanka has urged the public to monitor its official website and social media pages for accurate information, and to direct inquiries through official telephone numbers and email addresses. (Newswire)

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The Lithuanian Consulate to Sri Lanka has warned of fraudulent cryptocurrency advertisements allegedly linked to Lithuanian entities and prominent public figures, including Sri Lankan Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya. 

Issuing a statement, the Lithuanian Consulate expresses its deep concern regarding recent reports of such fraudulent cryptocurrency advertisements circulating on social media platforms. 

The Lithuanian Consulate said these deceptive campaigns, identified by the Prime Minister’s Office of Sri Lanka, are being operated by foreign entities with the intent of misleading Sri Lankan citizens.

It has been further reported that these fraudulent advertisements originate from accounts allegedly linked to Lithuania, raising concerns over their transnational nature and the exploitation of digital platforms for financial scams, the Consulate further said.

The Lithuanian Consulate further outlined the following measures that have been taken to address the matter;

1. Engaged with the Embassy of Lithuania to officially convey the concerns raised by Sri Lankan authorities and seek their guidance.
2. Requested formal clarification from relevant Lithuanian authorities regarding the alleged connections to fraudulent activities.
3. Communicated with Sri Lankan government agencies to express the Consulate’s readiness to cooperate in any investigations.
4. Called for enhanced international cooperation between Sri Lankan and Lithuanian authorities to identify and mitigate the fraudulent activities.
5. Urged social media platforms, particularly Meta (Facebook’s parent company), to take stronger measures to prevent the spread of fraudulent advertisements.

Commenting on the matter, the Director of the Lithuanian Consulate to Sri Lanka, Kanchana Kodituwakku said the Lithuanian Consulate strongly condemns any fraudulent activities that seek to exploit the trust of Sri Lankan citizens. 

“Upon receiving reports of these deceptive cryptocurrency advertisements, we acted swiftly to bring the matter to the attention of the Lithuanian Embassy and relevant authorities. The Consulate remains fully committed to supporting efforts that protect Sri Lankan and Lithuanian interests and will continue to work towards enhanced collaboration between regulatory and enforcement agencies. We also urge digital platforms to take decisive action against fraudulent content to prevent further exploitation of their users,” the Consulate Director added, issuing an official statement. 

The Lithuanian Consulate to Sri Lanka added that it will continue to monitor developments and provide necessary updates in coordination with Sri Lankan and Lithuanian authorities. (Newswire)

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The Ministry of Internal Affairs in Lithuania has announced new regulations for residence permit applications, effective from 01 December 2024. 

Issuing a statement, the Honorary Consulate of Lithuania in Sri Lanka said that Lithuania will implement stricter conditions for residence permit applications through visa service providers.

The Honorary Consulate further said eligibility is limited to family reunification, academic programs (including doctoral studies), highly skilled employment, and specific investment roles.

However, applications for seasonal work and secondments are excluded, it added. 

The Honorary Consulate noted that due to the closure of local visa service offices, applicants must travel to neighbouring countries to apply. 

Increased scrutiny is a response to security concerns related to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, it added. (Newswire)

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Lithuania’s Ambassador to India Diana Mickeviciene on Monday said her country takes pride in having a close connection with the Sanskrit language and urged that more research should be done.

“Actually it’s a recognised, scientific fact that our language, which is my native tongue, Lithuanian is the closest living sister language of Sanskrit. We don’t know how it happened, so, our idea is to research it — make it more known. It’s a pretty known fact in Lithuania, we take pride in this — having this close connection. But, it’s not so known in India, so our intention was to inform the people. Several years ago, our Embassy published this dictionary — very symbolic, dictionary of 108 words which are identical in Sanskrit and in Lithuanian languages. They are very basic words like – Madhu, Deva, Agni,” Mickeviciene told ANI.

Lithuanian and Sanskrit Languages are some of the oldest in the world and share great similarities. Lithuanian Embassy in association with Vilnius University and Lithuanian Language Institute has published a dictionary of 108 words in Lithuanian and Sanskrit which sound and mean the same.

“These are very primary, primordial — you know when humans start speaking names like fire, heaven or god, which shows that the connection is not superficial. It’s not just easy borrowing from one to another, but probably a very deep down relationship which I think needs to be researched and our idea is in fact to continue the research — like to find an Indian scholar of Sanskrit who will take interest in Lithuanian language– to pair them up with Lithuanian scholars of Sanskrit, so that they could sit together and do something much more. We can easily have 1008 words and even more identical words,” she added.

Mickeviciene has launched a new initiative that highlights the linguistic similarities between Sanskrit and Lithuanian.

Speaking in Hindi highlighting the relationship between India and Lithuania and her love for the Sanskrit language, she said that it’s difficult for her to delve into serious topics, but would like to say that she studied Sanskrit for two years.

“I myself studied Sanskrit for two years and I know that it’s far from just words, its grammar is quite related. So, very big similarities, conjugation of verbs and declinations of nouns, deep down its very structural connect,” said the Lithuanian envoy.

“In our universities, these are the language of scriptures and my study dealt with reading, understanding and translating Sanskrit but not speaking. I can talk in Hindi, I learnt Hindi 2-3 times and forgot it. I came to India this time with serious intention to learn Hindi and within six months I think that I can give a full interview in Hindi,” she added.

To further showcase this linguistic similarity Lithuanian Embassy in New Delhi has initiated a street art project in collaboration with Delhi Street Art, the Harcourt Butler school in Delhi and the winner of the Young Lithuanian Artist Talent Award, Linas Kaziulionis.

The most common day-to-day Sanskrit-Lithuanian words like Sapna, Madhu, Agni, Deva in both Devanagari and Lithuanian script are being painted on the outer wall of the school in the colourful composition depicting windows with shutters in the traditional Lithuanian style and pattern, offering a glimpse into mysterious historical connection between Lithuania and India. The selection of the words is meant to appeal to the understanding of any passing-by reader.

“Today we have unveiled a piece of street start which we have asked our artist who came from Lithuania and worked here for a week to depict that connection, to give a message to the passer-by in the street, so he stops and wonders — what is this all about and probably take a deeper interest. So, he decorated the wall with windows with a very traditional Lithuanian window–colourful window frames, also a number of basic words which are identical to our language. So, I think, what we wanted to do is to use art, especially, street art as a medium to pass that message of historical connect, the message of friendship, as I was saying to say — Dosti ka nishaan, hamari dosti ka nishaan aapke liye,” added Mickeviciene.

Talking about the friendship between the two countries Mickeviciene said, “It’s probably easier for us to emphasize that we may be far away in the north, but we may be also very closely related so we can be friends, we are friends, and we can be fostering a closer relationship in culture. In economics, and also in business. I think it’s usually important that we bring it forward to not just in culture, but to all the areas of mutual interest.”

She also expressed her fondness for the Hindi language and stated that black and white movies of actor Raj Kapoor are what she liked example ‘Awara’ and in recent times ‘3 idiots’ has impressed her.

Speaking in Hindi as a sign of friendship and how important is Hindi as a language between the two countries, she told, “Next month Indian Embassy will be established in my capital and I hope for more possibilities of Hindi language. We would like to popularise it and strengthen the relationship.”

The ambassador stressed both countries can definitely increase that influence in popularizing Hindi in Lithuania and said, “It’s one of the great languages of the world that so many people so many millions or hundreds of millions of people speak. So I will definitely be advising and helping your newly established embassy to work on that, or the influence when movies but I think it’s much more than movies in the poetry in any literature and just Hindi as a language of friendship of communication that we can talk about popularizing in Lithuania.” (ANI)

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A leading transport service in Lithuania which plans to recruit 600 truck drivers for its trans-Europe services has focussed its attention on Sri Lanka. 

The Prime Minister’s Office stated that the Lithuanian company has sought Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena’s intervention for a speedy training process for selected drivers.

The PM’s Office said in a statement that this request was made by Dana Janerikaite, Senior Director of Manvesta in Lithuania who called on Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena at the Temple Trees yesterday (13).

She said the company plans to recruit 600 truck drivers but could select only 109 persons with good driving skills and basic English knowledge.

“We pay a monthly salary of Rs. one million to work in our trans-Europe truck services. We have contracts for the transport of luxurious vehicles including Mercedes Benz, Tesla etc. and food and other goods to over 500 clients. We need good drivers and I prefer to recruit from Sri Lanka because it is easy to teach basic skills to literate persons,” she said.

Responding, the Prime Minister said the company could use the driving training facilities available at CTB Driving School and other training centers to speed up the process. He said he would take up the issue with the Labour Minister and the Foreign Employment Bureau to establish a data bank on applicants for driver employment.

Also participating in the discussion, local recruitment agency, Fortuna’s Managing Director Vimal Perera said the Manvesta’s training manager has used the trucks available at the Port of Colombo to test the driver skills and has recruited more than 100 out of 300 applicants. “We urge the government to provide left-hand drive trucks for these tests,” he added.

Secretary to the Prime Minister Anura Dissanayake, Manvesta’s Head of Training, Aussie Isganaitis and Fortuna’s Director Sussie Perera also attended the meeting. (NewsWire)

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