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Nearly 1,000 People Participate in Anti-Refugee Protest in Latvia

© REUTERS / Ints KalninsA police officer looks on as people attend a protest against European Union plans to host 250 refugees in Latvia over the next 2 years, in Riga, Latvia, August 4, 2015
A police officer looks on as people attend a protest against European Union plans to host 250 refugees in Latvia over the next 2 years, in Riga, Latvia, August 4, 2015 - Sputnik International
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About 1,000 demonstrators participated in protest against the resettlement of African and Middle Eastern refugees in Latvia.

View of Riga and Hansabanka building, left. - Sputnik International
Welcome: Latvia to Host First Refugees Under EU Migration Program in Fall
RIGA (Sputnik) — Almost 1,000 people gathered in front of the Latvian Cabinet of Ministers' building in capital Riga on Tuesday to protest local resettling of African and Middle Eastern refugees, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported.

In July, the Latvian government announced the country would take in 250 refugees over the next two years, including 200 refugees under the relocation program. Another 50 persons will be resettled through national and multilateral schemes.

The demonstrators were holding posters reading "No to NATO victims in Latvia," "Latvian leadership ─ to the international court," and "This is not our war." Many of them held the flags of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia in their hands.

Vaira Vike-Freiberga, former Latvia's President - Sputnik International
Debates on Refugee Resettlement in Latvia Used in 'Political Circus'
Dozens of police officers were dispatched to maintain security during the rally. No incidents were reported.

On June 25, the heads of EU member states approved a plan to relocate some 40,000 migrants already in Greece and Italy, as well as to admit a further 20,000 asylum seekers. The issue of the migrant quota implementation has become a topic of national debate in Latvia.

Latvia's former President Vaira Vike-Freiberga said earlier in the day that 250 people is an insignificant amount of refugees for the country to host, adding that "Latvia signs a certificate of poverty, morally discrediting itself," if it claims it cannot take this amount of people and integrate them into society.

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