Today, the Saeima's Defense and Internal Affairs Committee will surely support the proposal to extend the deadline for submitting proposals for the new immigration bill to the third reading.
Reason: many deputies, as well as experts, including representatives of ministries, simply did not have time to prepare their proposals, and this is a very politically sensitive issue — the issue of entry and stay in the country of citizens from third countries. In the run-up to elections, the topic of migration always resonates loudly, especially now, when a new Immigration Law is on the horizon and when we see that the number of foreigners residing in Latvia has sharply increased.
Nationalist deputies demand to tighten the already strict norms of legislation after videos from the "scene" began circulating on social media a couple of weeks ago — on one of the streets in the Plavnieki neighborhood, dozens of Muslims were performing namaz on the sidewalk in honor of the end of Ramadan. Saeima deputies from the National Alliance also "shared" videos on their accounts under the heading "Islamization of Latvia," but in response, they received angry comments like - "What are you looking at?! Why are you doing nothing?!"
And now the Saeima deputies have urgently submitted their amendments to limit migration. One of them, from National Alliance deputy Janis Dombrovskis, stipulates that the Cabinet of Ministers must suspend the issuance of new residence permits and long-term visas to citizens from third countries if the number of citizens from third countries exceeds 5% of the number of Latvian citizens residing in the country. The deputies will also attempt to limit the issuance of visas and residence permits to individuals from certain countries — primarily Islamic ones.
