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RIGA, Aug 19 (LETA) - Riga Vice Mayor Edvards Ratnieks of the National Alliance said at a news conference on Tuesday that he is urging illegal immigrants to leave Riga and Latvia in a month.

Migration was one of the issues highlighted by the National Alliance in its campaign in the runup to this year's municipal elections.

Ratnieks said he felt that residents of Riga had started feeling less safe on the streets of the Latvian capital amid rising illegal migration. While previously illegal immigrants came mainly from Central Asia, this year the number of illegal immigrants from African countries has been on the rise.

The Riga vice mayor cited the experience of other European countries, such as Sweden and France, which have shown that migrants can cause the criminogenic situation to deteriorate very rapidly. "We need to be proactive for the sake of future security," Ratnieks said.

The politician promised that in a month - at the end of September - the Riga Municipal Police will launch extensive raids to detect illegal migrants.

Municipal Police Chief Juris Lukass indicated that when a municipal police officer detects a person without a legal residence permit in Latvia, the person is handed over to the State Police or Border Guard.

Lukass informed that of the 22 illegal migrants detained in Riga this year, 15 were from African countries. These people, who had arrived in Latvia from Belarus and Russia, had been taken to Riga and left there. These people look lost and disoriented and are looking for some kind of contact with individuals like themselves.

Since the beginning of this year, the Riga Municipal Police have detained and handed over 22 persons to the State Border Guard, an average of less than three persons per month. By comparison, 23 persons were detained last year and 24 in 2023. Most of the persons detained in Riga without residence permits in Riga this year were from Sudan and Ethiopia.

Girts Lapins (National Alliance), chair of the Riga City Council Security, Public Order and Anti-Corruption Committee, said at the news conference that the local government would work to also reduce legal immigration.

Lapins noted that in order obtain permanent residence permit, applicants need to prove their Latvian language proficiency, whereas temporary residence permits are issued without such a requirement.

The National Alliance, which sits in opposition in the Saeima, intends to propose legislative amendments that would oblige foreigners seeking an extension of their residence permits to pass a state language exam after their first year of stay in Latvia.

According to Lapins, education is the "biggest hole" migrants with questionable motives use to legally enter Latvia. To study at Latvian universities, students obtain a temporary residence permit, which allows them to enter the country legally, but only 10 percent of those who do so complete their studies. As a result, universities "make millions" from a system that creates opportunities for migrants to enter Latvia, Lapins argued. This issue has been discussed in the Saeima, where university representatives have acknowledged certain problems, but denied that this is a major trend.

After the news conference, Lapins told LETA that he obtained the data from the Nothing Personal program of TV3 channel. At the beginning of this year, Nothing Personal reported that, based on the program's data on international students since 2022, around 10,500 foreigners study in Latvia per year, while 1,400 actually complete their studies.

Lapins intends to propose quotas for the admission of international students from non-EU countries. In his view, it is unacceptable for a university enroll 10,000 students who are not EU citizens.

Commenting on the planned raids to control illegal immigration in the city, Riga Mayor Viesturs Kleinbergs (Progressives) told LETA that the mission of the Riga Municipal Police is to ensure public order in the city in cooperation with other relevant authorities. Increased control in any area should be carefully considered, for example, as it is the case ahead of a new school year, when the police specifically monitor traffic safety near schools.