Integration monitor

Integration monitor is a daily Latvian press digest on ethnic minority and society integration issues. The Monitor reviews the biggest Latvian dailies: Diena, Latvijas Avize, Neatkariga (in Latvian language), Vesti Segodnya (in Russian language). In specific cases other information sources are used. Latvian Centre for Human Rights is not responsible for information published by the media.

June 11, 2015

  • Diena prints an article about racism in Latvia
  • Annual Report 2014 of the Security Police focuses on activities of Russia’s special services and so-called movement of Russia’s compatriots in Latvia

Diena prints an article about racism inLatvia. Two Indian students in an interview with the newspaper say that they quite often face discrimination and racist incidents inLatvia and those incidents affect also their study process. “We have experienced an instance of two young men coming to us at a bus stop and pushing us away from it. We have to avoid walking through certain places – the most dangerous is the district around the central station. We never walk alone: it would be a suicide - if not physical, than moral” – say the foreign students. They also tell about discrimination cases and fraud in apartment renting. The students complain that police do not take seriously their complaints. The number of foreign students for the past few years has grown by about one third, reaching 5,000. Representative of theRigaStradinsUniversity confirms that complaints about racist and discriminatory incidents are received regularly. Mostly the complaints come from dark skinned students citizens of the EU who were denied entry to night clubs, restaurants, pushed or attacked physically, shouted at or threatened. While opinion polls also indicate incidence of racist crimes, the majority of such cases remain unreported to the police. Also the Ombudsman’s Office and the Latvian Centre for Human Rights receive few complaints a year.

Newspapers report about the Annual Report 2014 of the Security Police. The report mainly focuses on the activities of Russia’s special services and so-called movement of Russia’s compatriots in Latvia. The report describes in details activities of several Russian non-governmental organisation and informal groups. The report names the most active persons who work on promotion of Russia’s policy on compatriots and supports Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. The report mentions such organisations as the Congress of Non-Citizens and its leaders Aleksandrs Gaponenko, Elizabete Krivcova, the Anti-fascists Committee and its leaders Josifs Korens and Janis Kuzins, the Russian Dawn and its leaders Illarions Girs and Jebgenijs Osipovs, and others, including the MEP from Latvia Tatjana Zdanoka and National Bolshevik Vladimirs Lindermans. According to the report, it is officially known about five Latvian residents who joined separatists in the Eastern Ukraine and two who travelled to Syriato join ISIS. Vesti Segodnya, Latvijas Avize

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