Vice-mayor: Riga is close to maximum refugee accommodation capacity

Riga is close to its maximum capacity for refugees, said the city’s vice-mayor Vilnis Ķirsis in an interview to LTV programme Rīta panorāma.
The politician said the municipality is able to handle registration of refugees – both refugee centres operate efficiently. Additionally, Ķirsis believes Riga would be able to deal with this issue having just one refugee centre on Kaļķu Street.
At the same time, the municipal administration has concluded the city is close to its maximum capacity for refugees. Ķirsis said that if the flow of refugees to Latvia increases, it may be necessary to act in similar manner as Ukraine’s other neighbouring countries, which have received millions of refugees from Ukraine, providing accommodation for them in schools and churches. This would mean interfering with the education process. Fortunately, Riga has been able to deal with refugee accommodation ‘rather well’ so far.
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Riga municipality has reserved EUR 500 000 in its budget for the refugee issue. According to Ķirsis, this money will soon run out, and it will be necessary to reserve more money. «We don’t save this money, I cannot say an accurate balance right now,» said Ķirsis.
The vice-mayor also reminded that Riga will not support any festivities or events on 9 May. The vice-mayor said the topic of 9 May has not yet been discussed with opposition faction of Harmony. He said this will be done soon. «We will be a law-abiding municipality – we will act as the government decides,» promised Ķirsis, adding that any events would be unacceptable in this situation and would be a «spit in the face» to Ukrainian people.