Russian citizens will be deported from Latvia by force if they don’t leave voluntarily, the country’s migration chief has said
Latvia has started expelling Russian citizen who failed to apply for a new residence permit in the EU country in time or failed to pass the language exam, the head of the national Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs (PMLP), Maira Roze, has announced.
Exit orders have so far been issued to six Russian citizens; two have already left the country’s territory, Roze said in an interview with the broadcaster LTV on Friday.
A total of 1,017 Russians have not complied with the requirements of the Latvian immigration law, she said. They’ll be handed orders to depart Latvia within 30 days, the PMLP chief added.
According to Roze, those who refuse to comply will be deported by force. Information on the Russians has already been passed on to Latvia’s border guard service, she said.
PMLP data suggests that out of the 1,017 Russians citizens in question, 213 had previously left Latvia through another European Union country.
In 2022, the Latvian parliament passed legislation mandating that residence permits issued to the Russians would expire on September 1, 2023 unless they obtained a certificate proving that they were proficient in the local language.
Read more