• Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma: Latvia is ready to accommodate asylum seekers also from Sweden

Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma stated that Latvia is ready to accommodate asylum seekers relocated not only from Greece and Italy but also from Sweden. Earlier the Swedish Prime Minister asked the EU to relocate some of the asylum seekers who arrived to Sweden to other member states.  News agency BNS

• 55% of the Latvian residents do not want to see refugees as their neighbours

According to the public opinion survey conducted by the research centre SKDS, 55% of the Latvian residents do not want to see refugees as their neighbours. 53% of respondents do not want to have Muslims, 52% - Roma, 37% - sexual minorities, 31% people of Asian origin, 19% - guest workers, and 18% - dark-skinned people as their neighbours. News agency BNS

• Parliament supported the new Asylum Law

On 18 December, the Parliament supported the new Asylum Law in the final reading. The new provisions are intended to comply with the new EU directives on asylum. Among other provisions, it stipulates that the state should ensure education of minor refugees and persons with alternative status in Latvian language schools. The law also foresees that the decisions regarding accommodation of asylum seekers from other EU member states or non-EU countries should be approved by the Parliament. Latvijas Avize

• National Union insists on transition of education in all national minority schools solely in the Latvian language

National Union insists on inclusion of the transition of education in all national minority schools solely in the Latvian language in the new government’s declaration and working plan. As reported, the National Union insisted for it before, however, in the coalition’s agreement of the previous government it was written that the proposal is taken into consideration. Vesti Segodnya

• 20% of Latvian employers would be ready to employ refugees
• Media report about fake news spread through Twitter about a young girl robbed by asylum seekers in Latvia

According to the survey conducted by “CV-Online”, 20% of Latvian employers would be ready to employ refugees if those have corresponding language and professional skills and are ready to do low qualified jobs. Among employers from the Baltic states who are planning to hire new employers in 2016, the most optimistic about employment of refugees are Latvian employers – 47% would be ready to do it (comparing to 42% In Estonia and 40% in Lithuania.) Neatkariga

Media report about fake news spread through Twitter about a young girl robbed by asylum seekers in Latvia. The information widespread after it got retweeted by the mother of the MP from the nationalists party Janis Dombrava. It was retweeted also by at least 50 state officials, including the Parliamentary secretary of the Ministry of Justice Janis Iesalnieks. Verifying the information, it was found that the initial source of information is an anonymous comment published on one of the local online news portals. The State Police also denied that it has information about such incident.  Neatkariga