Latvia calls watchdog’s migrant mistreatment claims ‘absurd’

Latvia on October 13 rejected as “absurd" claims by Amnesty International that it is violently mistreating migrants attempting to enter the European Union member country through Belarus. The human rights watchdog said in a report released on Thursday that Latvian authorities have violently pushed back refugees and migrants — mostly from Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East — from the country’s borders with Belarus and of “subjecting many to grave human rights violations, including secret detention and even torture.” In emailed comments to the Associated Press, Latvia’s Ministry of Interior said that “not a single case has been identified" of Latvian authorities “having used physical force or applied special means” and that no complaints of such behaviour have been recorded. A key allegation in the report is that Latvia uses rules stipulated under a declared state of emergency to suspend migrants’ rights to seek asylum in border areas, allowing “Latvian authorities to forcibly and summarily return people to Belarus.” The report said “dozens of refugees and migrants have been arbitrarily held in tents at the border in unsanitary conditions" and that only a small percentage of people were allowed into Latvia. The Latvian Interior Ministry said once the state of emergency was declared in August, authorities had announced that migrants' asylum applications would be assessed individually and entry would be permitted once “humanitarian grounds is established."