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Latvia 'Not Ready' to Accept 700 Refugees - Interior Minister

© AFP 2023 / ALFONSO DI VINCENZO People wait after disembarking from tanker Maria Bottiglieriin carrying more than 110 Central African migrants, men and women, on April 15, 2015 in the port of Corigliano Calabro
People wait after disembarking from tanker Maria Bottiglieriin carrying more than 110 Central African migrants, men and women, on April 15, 2015 in the port of Corigliano Calabro - Sputnik International
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Latvia's internal affairs minister said that the country is physically unable to accept 700 refugees as part of a plan suggested by the European Union.

Latvia is not ready to accept 700 African refugees as part of a quota plan suggested by the European Union, the country's Minister of Foreign Affairs Rihards Kozlovskis told news agency BNS.

Between 2009 and 2013, the population of Latvia's population fell by approximately 70,000 people as a result of both emigration and natural decline a a result of deaths exceeding births. Latvia's current population stands at around two million.

"I can honestly admit that we were not ready for this challenge ahead of time. If today they tell us 'please, this is 700 people,' we are not ready for this," Kozlovskis said.

Hundreds of migrants, mostly from East Africa, live in this camp, some for a year, under the elevated railway near the Porte de la Chapelle in Paris on 26 May, 2015 - Sputnik International
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According to Kozlovskis, the issue is not only the Internal Ministry's capacity to process refugees, but also adding them in the labor market, education and other institutions.

Kozlovskis added that Latvia similarly does not provide refugee status to people coming from Ukraine, although it does extend visas for those who live with relatives.

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