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Latvia could take in about 250 refugees

BC, Riga, 06.07.2015.Print version
Latvia could take in about 250 refugees, Latvian Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma (Unity) said after an emergency coalition meeting today, cites LETA.

This is the number Latvia could take in over a period of two years, and it should be a one-off measure, according to Straujuma.


"Two coalition parties support the opinion that Latvia should accept refugees. Meanwhile, All for Latvia!-For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK (VL-TB/LNNK) is still against it," the prime minister said.


She also stressed that the issue will be discussed by the interior ministers of the European Union this week. Straujuma believes that it would be appropriate if they discussed only numbers, excluding specific criteria used as the basis for calculation, namely, gross domestic product and population figures. Including such specific criteria in the respective documents could leave the door open for refugees in the future as well, the prime minister added.


Edgars Tavars, board member of the Union of Greens and Farmers (Greens/Farmers), said that the party has not discussed any specific numbers. Furthermore, Greens/Farmers' representatives are absent from the meetings of EU leaders, which is why the party does not have full information about all the circumstances and arguments. "We have no choice but support the prime minister," said Tavars, adding that the prime minister and Interior Minister Rihards Kozlovskis (Unity) will have to jointly look for the best solution.


Meanwhile, VL-TB/LNNK believes that the government of Latvia has to advocate a strong position regarding the refugee issue in order to reject the "voluntary quota" principle, demanding that a "specific situation" be applied to Latvia.


The issue is yet to be discussed by the government this afternoon.


As reported, EU leaders have agreed that the EU could take in 60,000 refugees in the coming years, however, a specific solution on how to distribute the refugees throughout the bloc is yet to be agreed upon.


The plan is to relocate 40,000 Syrian and Eritrean asylum seekers, who currently reside in Italy and Greece, throughout the EU in the coming two years. Another 20,000 third-country citizens who require international protection will be granted asylum as well.






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