Off the wire
• Xinhua, AFP to further cooperation in digital era  • Fitch downgrades 4 Portuguese banks  • Iran, China carmakers launch joint assembly lines  • Urgent: Gold falls on stronger U.S. dollar  • Hungarian Gripen fighter crashes at Czech military air base  • FIFA chief calls Israel to "help" Palestinian football players  • 1st LD: China to launch 30-bln-USD special fund for China-LatAm production capacity cooperation: premier  • Zambia gov't orders foreign chain stores to halt food imports  • Spanish treasury places 3.458 bln euros on market with negative interest rates  • Kenya confirms 65 deaths from cholera outbreak  
You are here: 　 Home

Latvian PM objects to mandatory refugee quotas

Xinhua, May 20, 2015 Adjust font size:

Latvian Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma said she was against mandatory quotas that would oblige all European Union (EU) member states to take in a certain number of refugees.

In an interview with LTV1 public television channel on Tuesday, the premier indicated that many EU member states objected to the refugee quotas proposed by the European Commission in response to the growing number of migrants arriving on the continent.

However, she said Latvia had to show solidarity with other countries and consider admitting some migrants.

"People do not flee their homeland without a reason, they are driven by war or economic hardship and their situation is much more serious than that of Latvians," the premier said.

Straujuma noted, though, that before admitting refugees it was necessary to figure out where and how to accommodate them, as there are as yet no such facilities to do so in Latvia.

EU leaders are expected to debate the proposed refugee quota system at a summit in June. According to the European Commission's plan, Latvia would have to admit 220 refugees who have not yet arrived in the EU. Endit