To limit the spread of Covid-19 from tomorrow, July 16, every immigrant who will arrive in the country using the services of international carriers will be registered in Latvia, the government decided at an extraordinary government meeting on Wednesday.
Initially, the data will be obtained on paper, but within a few weeks a solution will be developed to allow migrants to register electronically. The requirement to register will also apply to those arriving in Latvia by private planes and yachts.
The ministers heard information provided by Jānis Muudkovskis, Head of the Inter-Institutional Coordination Steering Group and Director of the State Chancellery, on the control of persons entering Latvia in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Muudkovskis presented to the ministers the data compiled by the Ministry of the Interior (MoI) on the control of persons who came to Latvia from the countries most affected by Covid-19, noting that so far there is a large number of persons in Latvia who are controlled and several persons have been punished for non-compliance with the 14-day self-isolation requirements.
The government supported the working group’s proposal to create an electronic immigration registration system, which could be developed within 2-3 weeks, but until the development of such a system from tomorrow, July 16, all persons entering Latvia by plane, ferry or bus will be registered on paper. “Processing the forms will create additional administrative burdens, but in this way we can introduce a mechanism for controlling immigrants from tomorrow,” added the head of the working group.
All immigrants will be surveyed and then the questionnaires will be processed depending on the country from which the migrant entered, passing this information to the relevant services – the Center for Disease Prevention and Control (SPKC) and the State Police. Ministers agreed that data from migrants would be deleted after 14 days.
The Minister of Economics Jānis Vitenbergs (KPV LV), who is the Minister of the Interior, informed that the data on immigrants from countries with low Covid-19 incidence will be collected by the particular carrier, passing this information to the SPKC, while data on persons from high Covid-19 countries -19 morbidity, will be collected by the border guard and the above information will be sent to the State Police.
State Secretary of the Ministry of Health Daina Mūrmane-Umbraško informed that the aim of the questionnaire will be to find out which countries the immigrant visited in the previous 14 days before arriving in Latvia.
At the same time, she pointed out that the new norm on questionnaires, which will come into force on Thursday, July 16, will not be applied retroactively, thus those who have arrived in Latvia in recent days from other countries will not be interviewed.
According to the Minister of Transport Tālis Linkaitas (JKP), the electronic registration system of immigrants will be developed by the airport “Riga” – initially for its own needs, but later it will be possible to adapt it in other areas. At the same time, Linkaits pointed out the need to provide border guard resources at the airport, as there are currently no border guards at the airport to submit questionnaires collected from immigrants. Linkaits added that currently 2,000 questionnaires are collected per day at the airport, but in the future the number could reach 5,000.
Máskovskis added that the temporary registration of immigrants in paper format will not solve the problem when third-country nationals arrive in Latvia with their personal cars, for example, from Estonia, however, this problem will be solved by electronic registration of all immigrants.
A representative of the Data State Inspectorate (DSI) indicated that the government could take a political decision to survey migrants, while expressing concerns about the measure’s compliance with human rights standards and the European Union’s data regulation. However, Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš (JV) emphasized that the DSI must protect people’s data, but the government must protect people’s lives.
The government also agreed that temporary residence permits would only be issued if a temporary residence permit was requested by a national of a country with a low incidence of Covid-19.
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