Latvian authorities have plans to send excess refugees from Mucenieki centre to Aluksne

The former boarding school building in Aluksne municipality’s Liepna Parish will be made into an asylum seeker accommodation centre, as reported by Latvian Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs (PMLP).
The office plans to use this building if the capacity of Mucenieki asylum seeker accommodation centre is exceeded.
On Tuesday, 4 January, Aluksne Council decided at an extraordinary meeting to hand over the building of the former boarding school to the Provision State Agency free of charge for a period of four years. This includes the building, auxiliary building and 0.66 ha of land.
Considering the global geopolitical challenges that may cause increased influx of asylum seekers, the boarding school building remade into an asylum seeker accommodation centre in Liepna will help provide a place to stay to up to 250 people. Operations of this centre will be managed by PLMP.
To ensure successful function of the new centre, the office will look for support personnel among local residents – drivers, caretakers and other support personnel.
Adaptation of the building for the needs of PMLP is planned to be finished by the end of the year. All necessary technical improvements and furnishing will be done using funding of EUR 700 000 from the European funds.
Like Mucenieki centre, the building will be fenced off and guarded 24/7.
If need be, State Police may be called in to assist with efforts to ensure public order.
As previously reported, since spring 2021 there have been many attempts by thousands of migrants from Iraq and other countries to illegally cross Latvia’s, Lithuania’s and Poland’s border as a result of the hybrid attack executed by Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko.
Latvian authorities have prevented a total of 4 249 people from entering the country’s territory since August 2021, when Latvia’s government first declared a state of emergency in border regions.
94 people were allowed to enter Latvia for humanitarian reasons. Some of those people have requested asylum in Latvia. Other people have left Latvia and have travelled to other European countries after submitting a request for asylum.