The deputies of the previous composition of the Saeima (the Parliament of Latvia) introduced amendments into the Immigration Act by supplementing it with paragraph 58 of the transitional rules, which clearly conflicts with those international norms that prohibit the collective expulsion of foreigners from the country. It happened right before the end of their term.
This regulation refers exclusively to those citizens of the Russian Federation who have given up the status of either citizens or non-citizens of Latvia after May 1 st , 2003 and how obtained the unconditional permanent residence permit in accordance with the same law.
However, being under influence of the pre-election fervour, the legislators decided that such residence permits were no longer permanent, and demanded to confirm them by September 1st this year by providing a certificate of knowledge of the Latvian language at the level not lower than category A2, issued no later than February 1, 2001.
The Office of Citizenship and Immigration Affairs of Latvia made a decision to “sharpen” the law even more and demanded from people falling under the sphere of Article 58 to also prove that they have the Latvian pension of whatever scale or a permanent source of income in the amount of the minimum wage in the course of previous year. In addition to that, the Office of Citizenship and Immigration Affairs demands to provide information on all relatives and external contacts and also to fill in various political questionnaires.
Vladimir Buzaev, a deputy at the Riga city council on behalf of the Latvian Russian Union, sent detailed calculations to the government proving that it will take the National Center for the Education, with its current efficiency, to up to 8 years, to certify 25,000 people to whom paragraph 58 refers to proving that won’t be possible to finalize in the remaining 9 months before the fateful date. Vladimir Buzaev managed to table his calculations using an opportunity when changes to the “language” regulations №157 got opened for debates on a completely different matter.
By Vladimir Buzaev’s estimation, approximately 80% of those who Article 58 refers to have both knowledge of the Latvian language and necessary certificates but they got them before February 1 st , 2001. Now these people are forced to take a language exam once again which is absolutely pointless because until the date when the changes were approved by the parliament they used both the language and the documents certifying its level to get jobs. Vladimir Buzaev proposed that the government should recognize those certificates which will immediately cut the queue for taking exams by five times.
The government took our concerns into account but preferred to look for more complicated ways. On January 4, it published a draft of new amendments to the language rules (22-TA-3619). According to the document, the Examination Center is allocated one and a half million euros from the reserve fund to search for additional inspectors and examiners. Those people who fall under the sphere of article 58 are invited to sign up for exams from February 1 to March 25, and take exams from April 11 to July 31 without the right to retake in case of failure. The proposal to recognize previously-issued certificates was not supported.
It goes without saying that we are going to table our amendments although the
chances that they will be approved by this government are really slim.
