Resettled in the Baltics, refugees flee for wealthier lands

Syrian refugee Mohamed Kamel Hal Ali poses for a picture in Rukla, Lithuania, November 23, 2016. Picture taken November 23, 2016. REUTERS/Andrius Sytas

RUKLA, Lithuania/MUCENIEKI, Latvia (Reuters) - 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.