With the support of the public media, a new welcomer campaign to soften Latvia's migration policy has launched, the State Security Service warns that quite many of those who want to enter pose a threat to national security and have to be screened out among third-country nationals. The studies they list as their reason for coming are, in essence, only a cover story for entry into the European Union.
Neatkarīgā started looking at migration for a seemingly minor reason. Residents of the Teika area have been grumbling about the behavior of food delivery couriers since the beginning of the pandemic. There are many South Asians among couriers working with Wolt and Bolt brands. Pakistanis, Indians, Uzbeks, Sri Lankans. The food delivery business is a much-needed service to society in the pandemic. But the question is how and why this work is done.
To collect orders from a local kebab shop, not all but many couriers leave their cars wherever - on the sidewalk, in the greenery, on the bike path and even on the public transport lane. Someone has told them that if the emergency lights are turned on, they can do so. When a mom or dad with a stroller shows up and can't pass the car, they follow to the next item on their list: "Just a five minute" in English. Yes, they don't speak Latvian at all. They don't even try. Don't understand any questions. It is only from intonation that they try to understand what someone wants from them. After five minutes they get in their rented cars, which are barely holding together, and run at high speeds through small streets where they are only allowed to drive at 20 kilometers per hour. Stop signs are ignored, giving way is ignored. Crashes are caused. They drive as they did in the east, and there the vantage is not for a pedestrian or a cyclist, but a car. The larger the car, the higher it is in the hierarchy of traffic. Of course, it is not the case that local couriers do not break traffic rules. However, they at least have respect for the police, who occasionally drive through the once so quiet streets of Teika.
What does Edgars Kroģeris, an owner of a kebab shop, say about it? He does not own the street, the sidewalk, the greenery, but his business is responsible for the impact on the environment and life. By analogy with a gas station - it does not own the city sewers, but fuel still must not leak there. The owner of the kebab shop admits that he is in a conflicting situation. On the one hand, he also gets angry when he can't drive up to his workplace sometimes. On the other hand, the food supply business lets him continue working in Covid conditions. Couriers are being systematically educated. Each electronic order is accompanied by a reminder not to park in unauthorized places. It has been coordinated with the municipal police where to park. Riga City Council has been asked for advice on how to solve the parking problem in that particular place, but no advice has been given. And so everyone continues to suffer - parents with strollers, the owner with the accusations of the locals. But the careless couriers stubbornly refuse to walk a few hundred meters to the side street and try to park their cars practically inside the kitchen of the kebab shop. Because that is their eastern tradition. Of course, Wolt and Bolt companies themselves also receive complaints. Edgars Kroģeris says that the courier composition of one of these companies has recently been almost completely changed. There are noticably fewer people from third countries.
Of course, international companies can not afford to sort their partners - couriers - by skin color and country of origin, because it can quickly land them into trouble. Accusations of racism. And this is implicitly acknowledged to Neatkarīga by Lisa Ristala, the head of Wolt in the Baltics:
“Currently in Latvia, we work with approximately 1,300 courier partners and are happy to cooperate with anyone who has been officially issued residence and work permits and who speaks Latvian at the A1 level set by the Cabinet of Ministers for the courier profession. We do not collect data on the citizenship or ethnicity of couriers, as anyone who is staying in Latvia legally and has a work permit can be a Wolt courier and this type of information is irrelevant when making deliveries. Wolt has a zero-tolerance policy against discrimination, and we are also working very hard to comply with all the provisions of the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)."
As far as traffic safety issues are concerned, they are discussed with the new couriers before the start of a partnership, and they are also regularly reminded about traffic safety in the city in general and traffic organization procedures in specific places. A courier who travels by car needs a valid driver's license, but "if the courier does not comply with the laws and traffic regulations in the country, the cooperation agreement is terminated".
Neatkarīgā also asked the other food delivery company about its policy of attracting third-country nationals, and here is an excerpt from the explanation of Kārlis Ķezbers, Bolt's regional manager in Latvia:
"We believe in the right of everyone to earn a fair living, regardless of their ethnicity or origin. We also believe in using technology to remove any obstacles that might prevent someone from doing the job they want. When starting cooperation, we inform all our courier partners about the language requirements - they must have at least an A1 level of language knowledge. If we receive a complaint about a courier partner's language proficiency, we will perform an additional check and, if there are violations, block the courier's access to the app. Bolt actively cooperates with the State Language Center, the State Police and other institutions in all violations they investigate."
It should be emphasized here that Wolt and Bolt - the twins of the food delivery business - are not actually responsible for the work ethic, behavior and legality of staying in Latvia of their couriers. It's just like in a taxi business, where a taxi driver registers in an online app and puts a sticker on the door. Food couriers are also subcontractors with whom a service contract has been signed. Wolt and Bolt only hand over the bag and provide orders, for which they charge their interest accordingly. And if there are too many complaints about a partner, the bag is taken away.
Disruption of public order - driving culture, violation of the state language law, violation of the labor law are not the only problems related to the stay of third-country nationals in Latvia. The State Security Service draws attention to a possible threat to national security. The State Security Service assess whether the entry and residence of these persons in Latvia may pose a threat to national security, the purpose of inspections is to prevent the entry of extreme and radical persons. And here are the statistics sent by the service for last year:
“In 2020, the SSS, in accordance with its competence, evaluated 1,000 applications for visa invitations and residence permits for a total of 1295 foreigners from the so-called terrorist risk countries, as well as 648 visa applications from foreigners and 506 applications for residence permits.
As a result of the evaluations carried out, the SSS requested a refusal to issue a visa in 143 cases and a refusal to issue a residence permit in 62 cases."
The refusal is therefore given to every sixth applicant. And refusals by the State Security Service are also given to the so-called "refugees":
"Last year, the SSS inspected 54 people from countries with an increased presence of terrorist groups, in three cases requesting to refuse asylum."
Food couriers are mostly young people - students. This way, they can earn money while studying. However, there are also third-country nationals, especially from countries at risk, for whom studies are only a formal pretext for being in the European Union. What the real purpose of their stay is, no one knows.
“It should be noted that persons from countries with an increased presence of terrorist groups or other risks related to terrorism mostly want to enter Latvia directly in connection with study opportunities in Latvian higher education institutions. In the assessment of the SSS, it cannot be ruled out that by pretending to be students, radicals may also try to enter Latvia.”
Neatkarīgā has received from the Ministry of Education information about students from third countries registered in Latvian higher education institutions. This list still needs to be investigated, but there is an immediate discrepancy with the data provided by the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs on the issued temporary residence permits. There are significantly more students than the permits issued. This means that either the statistical calculations are different or erroneous, or the monitoring of migrants is not strict enough. And national security should prevail over the interests of the education business. As the State Security Service emphasizes:
“A visa or residence permit issued in our country allows a person to move freely not only in the territory of Latvia, but also in other Schengen area countries. For this reason, the examination of visa and residence permit applicants from the so-called risk countries is an important precondition not only in the context of security in Latvia, but in the context of the whole of Europe.”
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