On Monday, the Council of the European Union reached an agreement on a draft decision to relocate 32,256 asylum seekers currently in Italy and Greece to other EU member-states, adopting conclusions on resettling 22,504 displaced persons.
According to Daiga Holma, Latvia is ready to host a total of 250 refugees within two years, including 200 refugees under the relocation program and 50 persons to be resettled through national and multilateral schemes.
The exact number of people and the selection criteria will be identified soon, Holma said.
In June, EU leaders rejected a plan to relocate 40,000 recent refugee arrivals in Italy and Greece, as it stipulated a mandatory quota system for migrant distribution among EU member states.
The EU interior ministers are expected to present voluntary relocation schemes by the end of July.
The European Parliament will address the issue in September.
