Latvia may change repatriation laws due to increased interest from Russian citizens

Delfi reported the information.

The explanatory report on the initiation was submitted to the government, which demonstrated an increasing interest of Russian citizens in moving to Latvia. 

The law on repatriation of 1995 was intended to create an opportunity for people native to the region to return home. At first, the proportion of those interested was approximately the same for ethnic Latvians and Lithuanians both from Western and other countries. In 2010, 85% of applications were submitted by citizens of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. In 2022, the share of Russian applications among all submitted applications was 81%. During the year, 430 requests were received from Russian citizens, of which 220 were granted the status of a repatriate or a family member of a repatriate. 

In addition, the Ministry also drew attention to the fact that often the applicants, despite having some historical connection with Latvia, are not otherwise connected to the country; they do not have relatives in Latvia who they regularly keep in touch with, and have never visited Latvia, although they have traveled to other European countries, and it does not seem that they are really interested in living in Latvia. 

Also, the ministry’s report states that after the announcement of "partial" mobilization in Russia, questions about the repatriation procedure began to come from people who are interested in having a residence permit in Latvia in case they are threatened with being mobilized. 

The agency also writes about the growing number of forgery cases of documents submitted with the application in recent years. For this reason, about 200 permits were canceled or suspended. At the same time, the verification process are complicated by the fact that the accuracy of the information must be confirmed by the country that issued the document, i.e. Russia, and sometimes there is simply no answer to verification requests.

Latvia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs sees a risk these people will be able to apply for Latvian citizenship after obtaining the status of repatriate. In this case there is also a threat of submission of forged documents, the veracity of which will be difficult to verify.  

The ministry concludes that in the current situation, the law is no longer used for its main purpose - to facilitate the return of people who once left the country due to the threat of repression, or assimilation, or war, and that its operation should be suspended until it is revised to take into account all the risks. 

The proposal will reportedly be considered at a government meeting on Tuesday, January 10.