Riga and other Latvian cities will no longer accept Ukrainian refugees. The state program to support refugees from Ukraine has been significantly reduced due to the fact that local authorities no longer have money to accommodate people.
Many refugees are already on the street: they are not accommodated in hotels at state expense, and it is too expensive for people who do not have jobs to rent their own homes. At the same time, some 120 refugees from Ukraine arrive in Latvia every day: mostly they are people from the occupied territories, who were evacuated or forced to go to Russia, and are now trying to go to Europe or back to Ukraine, Current Time writes.
Latvian authorities say they have been providing food and shelter to hundreds of refugees from Ukraine for three months, hoping that in three months they would find work and be able to support themselves. But many refugees never found a job, and it came as a surprise to them that on top of that they might also be left without a place to live. The Riga City Council and several other municipalities, in their turn, explain the novelties by the fact that since 1 July the state program of assistance to Ukrainian refugees in Latvia was considerably reduced: the state now provides only 3,5 Euros per a refugee per day. It is impossible to accommodate people with this money in Riga hotels, hostels or dormitories, and the cities themselves also have no money to accommodate and feed people. So far the Riga City Council has promised to prolong free accommodation for a month to pensioners, but it is not clear what to do afterwards.
The support center for Ukrainian refugees in Riga will also close soon due to lack of funding: it has already been announced by the mayor of the Latvian capital. The municipality has no more money for its maintenance. City authorities say that the city will not accept new refugees, but will help those already registered - until the end of August. The Riga City Council also appealed to local residents who would be willing to host refugees in their homes, promising them compensation from the state. But so far there are not enough people willing to host Ukrainian families.
