Latvia agrees to admit 526 more refugees

Latvian ministers voted at an extraordinary cabinet meeting on Thursday to admit 526 more refugees in addition to the 250 migrants Latvia had decided to take in voluntarily.

According to Latvia's official position which the government adopted during Thursday's meeting on European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker's proposal for tackling the migrant crisis, Latvia still refuses to back mandatory quotas for the distribution of migrants across the bloc's member states and insists on a voluntary admission of refugees.

At the same time, Latvia is calling for a mechanism that would allow EU member states to consider admission of more refugees in case a more extensive resettlement of migrants is needed sometime in the future.

Latvia's position on the refugee issue has yet to be approved by the parliament European affairs committee, which is expected to take the decision this Friday.

The ministers supporting the admission of refugees came from the centre-right Unity party and the centrist Greens and Farmers Union (ZZS). Health Minister Guntis Belevics was the only ZZS minister to vote against. Ministers from the right-wing National Alliance did not support the admission of refugees.

Earlier on Thursday, politicians at a meeting of the coalition cooperation council failed to agree on a united stance on refugees.

While Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma's Unity party argued that Latvia had to show solidarity with the rest of Europe and take in more refugees in line with the European Commission's plan, ZZS gave its ministers permission to vote as they deemed necessary and the National Alliance stuck to its stance that Latvia could not afford to admit so many migrants.

Latvian Interior Minister Rihards Kozlovskis said after the government meeting that measures will be taken to reinforce Latvia's borders if there is a sharp increase in illegal border crossings.

Migrant traffic inside the Schengen Area is being monitored, and a number of cases have been reported where migrants have been trafficked from Lithuania through Latvia to Finland, Kozlovskis said.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Straujuma welcomed the adoption of Latvia's official position on refugees.

While the Latvian government was taking its decision on refugees on Thursday, European Council President Donald Tusk called an EU summit on the migration crisis, which is to take place next Wednesday, Sept. 25.

The Latvian government had earlier agreed to the resettlement of 250 asylum seekers in Latvia, but had not accepted the admission of 526 more people under Juncker's plan. As a result, Latvia was the only member state unable to present an official position on the refugee issue at a meeting of EU justice and home affairs ministers on Monday.

Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics warned that because of its failure to adopt an official position on refugees Latvia had ended up in international isolation and risked losing Europe's support in various areas, such as security and EU funding.

Also, Unity leader Solvita Aboltina admitted earlier this week that disagreements in the coalition about the refugee issue could threaten the stability of Latvia's current government and described the situation as a "constitutional crisis". Endit