Riga, Oct 15 (LETA) - Today about 60 people protested in front of the City Hall in Riga against the restriction of migration, LETA observed.

The protesters had prepared posters "Stop Xenophobia", "Deportation back in fashion?", "No to Nazism" and others. One of the posters depicted one of the initiators of the fight against migrants, Riga Vice Mayor Edvards Ratnieks (National Alliance).

Protesters chanted slogans that people are not a threat and migration is not illegal.

The head of the security, public order and corruption prevention committee of the Riga City Council, Girts Lapins (National Alliance), came out to join the protesters. The protesters did not wish to discuss anything with him. Lapins stressed that there is freedom of expression in Latvia. In his opinion, it is the protesters who are escalating the situation.

In his opinion, the City of Riga was not doing anything special. If more than 80 percent of the citizens have expressed their demand for improved security, it is only normal that the municipality, together with other services, carries out inspections at construction sites and elsewhere, checking work permits and work contracts.

He stressed that the biggest threat to Riga at the moment is not illegal migration, but legal migration. According to official data, around 20,000 migrants are staying in Latvia. Lapins believes that most of them live in Riga, not in Latvia's smaller towns. "If the migration gates are not closed, in a few years there will be 40,000 or even 60,000 migrants in Riga," the politician warned.

As reported, the aim of Migration is a Human Right protest is to raise concerns about the use of migrants by politicians as a tool for political manipulation and fear-mongering.

The event's organizer, artist Metra Saberova, told LETA that Ratnieks had announced raids against migrants, stressing that this would not be a one-day action, but a regular and systematic action, thus increasing the institutional restriction of freedom.

According to the protest organizers, politicians are actively inciting hatred and public panic in order to attract new voters by creating enemy images of migrants and other minorities.

This is leading to an increase in xenophobia and Islamophobia in the society.

As reported, raids to catch illegal migrants in Riga, instigated by politicians of the National Alliance (NA), began in late September. Ratnieks called on people in Riga who have information or suspicions about gathering places of illegal migrants to report them to the Riga Municipal Police.

This year, 22 illegal migrants have been detained by the Riga Municipal Police.