Latvia | Dutch people who helped refugees face up to eight years in prison – this is how Latvia’s return law differs from Finland’s

Holland’s citizens face up to eight years in prison in Latvia because they have helped refugees who came to Latvia from difficult conditions.

The background was the rescue of another helper’s little sister.

Abdulaal Hussein and Marine Doppen went to Latvia to help Hussein’s little sister Mabroka after hearing that he got from Sudan via Egypt, Russia and Belarus to Latvia with human smugglers.

There, the smugglers left the group in an abandoned farm without food, water or heating.

Sometimes the smugglers returned only to demand that the refugees text their loved ones and ask for more money for the smugglers.

Hussein said that there was no one in Latvia willing to help the sister, so they traveled from Holland to the place and transported her sister and the other two Sudanese women in the group to the Lithuanian side.

They left food for the other members of the group and returned later to pick them up. At this point, the Latvian authorities stopped the car and took them in for questioning on suspicion of people smuggling.

The case is reported by, for example, a British newspaper The Guardianthe Dutch public broadcaster NOS and NL Times.

Hussein’s the perception is that the Latvian authorities would have only forced the newcomers back to the Belarusian side. For example, a human rights organization has also written about this practice Amnesty.

In the worst case, the refugees are left outside in the forest without being able to continue further back than forward, which has caused many deaths, The Guardian also reminds.

Doppen was quickly released on bail, but Hussein’s detention lasted more than a month and the bail amount was five times compared to Doppen’s.

Latvian even a strict law does not prevent giving food and drink, but giving shelter or helping refugees to move on is prohibited, Hussein’s Latvian lawyer Raimonds Briedis interprets the law for The Guardian.

According to The Guardian, Doppen and Hussein intend to admit their actions, which took place for humanitarian reasons, at the trial in Latvia.

Little sister Mabroka has reached Holland and is waiting for her asylum application to be processed.

in Latvia also an activist Ieva Raubiško is accused of helping Syrian refugees in January 2023.

He has spoken on the subject, for example for STT and The Guardian, stressing to both that the refugees were in bad shape and needed immediate help.

Thing is complicated because the autocratic president of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko has encouraged foreigners to the borders of Belarus and the EU in order to put pressure on the EU countries.

Raubiško tells The Guardian that he understands the security concerns in a situation where Latvia has two violent and unpredictable neighbors, namely Belarus and Russia, which continues its major offensive in Ukraine.

He says that he cannot accept the fact that people are left to die on Latvia’s borders.

Latvia as such, has not received an official notice of its legislation, nor has it received any judgment from international courts, the state secretary Dimitrijs Trofimovs Latvia’s Ministry of the Interior said last month for HS.

However, due to the decision of the European Court of Human Rights, Latvia has had to accept asylum seekers from people that the country had previously rejected.

Latvia’s restitution law has also been criticized, for example UN Refugee Agency.

Although Doppen, Hussein and Raubiško would be sentenced in Latvia, the appeal process could become long and it could again lead to the European Court of Human Rights.

Academician and professor emeritus Martti Koskenniemi refers to the case for example to the report of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency human rights defenders, to the recommendations of the Human Rights Commissioner of the Council of Europe and to the EU directive that only came in November 2023.

The directive states that human trafficking is punishable, but mentions in its introduction that the purpose is not to punish aid given to family members, humanitarian aid given to third-country nationals in accordance with legal obligations, or supporting their basic needs.

EU countries have an obligation to apply the directives in their legislation, and this also applies to Latvia.

Finland the government’s restitution law proposal is currently in the constitutional committee,

It has small similarities with the current Latvian law and also with the US President Joe Biden tightening the treatment of asylum seekers of the new regulation with.

In all cases, we want to speed up the asylum application process and give the border guards the power to make faster decisions, when the applications have usually been thoroughly processed by professionals.

Finland the bill does not have the same criminalization of aid as in the Latvian law, Koskenniemi states.

But otherwise, both Koskenniemi and 17 other legal scholars consulted by the Constitutional Law Committee knocking out of the new bill completely.

“It is in violation of Finland’s human rights and EU obligations and violates the Finnish Constitution,” summarizes Koskenniemi.