GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES

In Lithuania, Ukrainians Find Disappointment Instead of Dream Jobs

Oct 20, 2017 | 17:16 GMT

Ukrainian migrant workers who are promised lucrative jobs elsewhere return home with empty pockets and a bitter grudge.

A steelworker finishes his shift in Mariupol, Ukraine. Many Ukrainian migrant workers who are promised lucrative jobs elsewhere return home with empty pockets and a bitter grudge.

(JOHN MOORE/Getty Images)

For weeks on end, their tedious routine stayed the same: Wake up at 4:30 a.m., drink a cup of coffee and set out on foot to make the 17-kilometer (10.5-mile) trip to work at the free economic zone in the Lithuanian port city of Klaipeda. There and back, the trek takes nearly three hours. After finishing a long shift around 9:30 p.m., the migrant workers return to the two tiny rooms they rent in a hostel for an exorbitant price. The locals, after all, are wary of providing lodging to foreigners. Exhausted from a hard day's work, the laborers want only to lie down for a few hours of sleep before the wail of the alarm clock signals that it's time to do it all over again....

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