Due to influx of Russians, Latvia plans to change law on repatriation
The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Latvia is initiating changes to the law on repatriation in order to narrow down the possibilities for Russian citizens to use it as a mechanism for moving to Latvia.
As Censor.NET informs, this was reported by Delfi.
A corresponding explanatory report was submitted for consideration by the government, which, in particular, demonstrates the constant increase in the interest of Russian citizens in moving to Latvia.
The Repatriation Act of 1995 aimed to create an opportunity for people from this region to return to their homeland. If at first the proportion of those interested was approximately the same for ethnic Latvians and Lithuanians both in the West and from other countries, in 2010 85% of applications were submitted by citizens of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine. For 2022, the share of Russian applications among all those submitted was 81%. During the year, we received 430 requests from Russian citizens, of which 220 were granted the status of a repatriate or a family member of a repatriate.
The department drew attention to the fact that often applicants, despite having a certain historical connection with Latvia, are not connected to the country in any other way - they do not have relatives in Latvia with whom they regularly maintain contact, and they have never been there. although they traveled to other European countries, and it does not seem that they are really interested in living in Latvia.
In the report of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, they write that after the announcement of "partial" mobilization in Russia, questions about the repatriation procedure began to come from people who are interested in having a residence permit in Latvia in case they are threatened with a summons.
The department also writes about the increase in the number of cases of forgery of documents that are submitted together with the application - not only in 2022 but in general in recent years. For this reason, about 200 permits were canceled or suspended. At the same time, checks are complicated by the fact that the accuracy of the information must be confirmed in the country that issued the document - that is, Russia, and answers to these requests sometimes simply do not come.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Latvia sees the risk that after receiving the status of repatriate, these people will be able to apply for Latvian citizenship in the future, and in this case, there is also a threat of submitting forged documents, the veracity of which will be difficult to verify.
The agency concludes with the conclusion that in the current situation, the law is no longer used for its main purpose - to facilitate the return of people who once left the country due to the threat of repression or assimilation or war, and that its operation should be stopped - until it is reviewed to take into account all the risks.
The proposal will be considered at the government meeting on Tuesday, January 10.
Earlier it was reported that the number of Russians wishing to obtain citizenship has doubled in Latvia.
