The law on assistance to refugees from Ukraine is starting to look like a wilting flower

The Saeima and the government amended the Law on Assistance to Ukrainian Civilians in a mad rush, which - the amendments - will have to be amended immediately, not applied in practice.

Last Thursday morning, the government approved and sent a draft amendment to the Saeima, which received the amendment and adopted it as a matter of urgency. The point of the amendments is to shorten from 120 days to 60 days the period during which the Latvian state has undertaken to pay for housing for Ukrainian war refugees. The use or non-use of this possibility now depends on the housing costs. If affordable housing can be found, the state will continue to pay for 120 days, but no longer than December 31 this year. If the housing is expensive, the amount set aside to pay for it may now be spent quicker.

As everyone knows, Russia attacked Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and refugees from Ukraine started to arrive in Latvia in March, but it is now mid-July. It is less than three weeks since July 1, when the government's Regulations on the Provision of Primary Support to Ukrainian Civilians, which are subordinate to the Law on Assistance to Ukrainian Civilians, came into force, whereby the government relieved itself of the obligation to pay for refugees to stay in special tourist hostels, where accommodation costs are higher than in adapted accommodation in former school boarding houses, etc. The Chairman of the Riga City Council, Mārtiņš Staķis, then revealed the figure that about 1.8 thousand Ukrainian refugees had been placed in tourist hostels out of the 16.6 thousand registered in Riga. For the accommodation of 1.8 thousand refugees, hoteliers received a total of about €450,000 per month, of which the state has only started to compensate the municipality €150,000 since July 1. Staķis said that Riga would then stop accepting new refugees, but would be able to pay an extra €300,000 for about two more months to ensure that the hosts of the tourist hostels did not put their residents out on the streets on July 1.

Since July 1, in the weeks that have passed, no Ukrainians have been found living under bridges, etc., and there have been no reports of Ukrainians being evicted. For the time being, Ukrainians are able to solve their problems by using their savings and entitlements to social payments granted by the Ukrainian state, their kinship with Ukrainians here, vacancies in the Latvian labor market, the possibility of returning to Ukraine or travelling to Western Europe and further afield. However, autumn is closer than people want, or, to put it more aptly this year, dare to think. The heating season is about to begin, with a leap in housing maintenance costs beyond any limits that have so far been drawn in the budgets of the state, private companies and individuals. Ukrainians will be hit by these costs like everyone else. Consequently, the Law on Assistance to Ukrainian Civilians will have to be rewritten or abolished altogether.

Although the law has been amended largely for the sake of Riga, it was not possible to obtain a comment on the amendments from the municipality, as the spokesperson on the refugee issue, Linda Ozola, deputy to Staķis, was on vacation. Similarly, the government and the Saeima, after formally working very hard last week, will now be idle for several weeks in the hope that things will resolve or clarify themselves and then they can be written into law without a second thought.

The spending of the money allocated to Ukrainians is now in a period of transition during which Ukrainians have to find jobs and homes for themselves. "We must not create the impression that Ukrainians are a burden on the Latvian state budget and society," says Andris Bite, co-owner of the fish processing company Karavela and now President of the Latvian Employers' Confederation. Replenishing Latvia's shrinking workforce with imported labor has been his theme long before the war in Ukraine. Now that the war has given this theme a new twist, Karevela is setting an example of how to use it. This includes recruiting Ukrainians who are housed in an agricultural school in Saulaine, not far from Bauska. Karavela drives these people to and from work, but this does not mean that all able-bodied Ukrainians who end up in Riga have already found work.

A striking example of the mismatch between Latvia's need for workers and the supply of Ukrainians is the Blueberry Land plantation near Lielvārde, whose owner Aleksejs Fomičovs told Neatkarīgā that 50-60 Uzbeks will be employed this season, but probably no Ukrainians.

Ukrainians have called and inquired about the job offer, but in a flash they realized that the job was not for them. Firstly, there is still enough support from the Latvian state at the moment to prevent them from having to accept the first job offered. Secondly, the Uzbeks who have paid a lot of money for travel and work visas arrive in Latvia without their children, while the Ukrainians who have obtained travel to Latvia and employment rights practically for free have to look after their children. Thirdly, it may actually be wiser for Ukrainians to look for permanent rather than seasonal work.

The government's Regulations on the Provision of Primary Support to Ukrainian Civilians, in force since July 1, incorporate the ruse of using the same money to pay for both housing for Ukrainians and heating bills for the local population. The Regulation contains a paragraph which reads as follows: “If a municipality accommodates a Ukrainian civilian by concluding a rental agreement with a private person (landlord), the municipality shall be reimbursed the remuneration paid to the private person (landlord) for the use of the accommodation, which shall include all charges related to the use of the accommodation, but not more than €300 per month per apartment.” The Ministry of the Interior accepts applications from Latvian citizens for refugee accommodation and has informed that 95 individuals had applied by July 14.

Compared to the approximately 35,000 Ukrainian refugees, the 95 offers are practically nothing, even before assessing how serious and acceptable the offers are: perhaps someone envisages accommodating Ukrainians in a wood shed, but himself living cozy and warm with those 300 euros a month; or another envisages sexual pleasures.

It would really be unfair if the Latvian government (ruling coalition, Saeima) cared more about the Ukrainians wintering in Latvia than about the locals. It is enough that it takes care of its own overwintering without upsetting people with bad news or painful decisions before the elections to the 14th Saeima.