Bergmanis: 48-hour deadline to leave Latvia raises practical questions the law doesn't answer

Raimonds Bergmanis (AS), chairman of the Saeima's Defence, Internal Affairs and Corruption Prevention Committee and a candidate for the 15th Saeima, raised practical concerns about enforcing a law requiring certain individuals to leave Latvia within 48 hours, speaking on TV24's programme "Ziņu top."

Bergmanis noted that setting such a deadline in law is straightforward, but actually enforcing it is far more complicated. Decisions on deportation require staff to make and carry them out, and border guard capacity is already limited. If such decisions had to be made en masse and quickly, the burden on the relevant services would rise sharply.

Funding and staffing shortfalls

According to Bergmanis, if no additional funding is allocated for implementing the new requirement, the necessary resources and personnel would have to be found from within existing state budgets, raising the question of where they would come from.

Complex cases involving people already in Latvia

Bergmanis said situations involving people already residing in Latvia could be particularly complicated. As examples, he mentioned a person who owns a villa in Jūrmala and would have to leave within 48 hours once their residence permit expires, as well as a Russian pensioner who has received a Russian pension for years and supports Putin's regime. Such cases raise numerous practical questions about how the requirement would actually be carried out.

Bergmanis also pointed to an ambiguity in the regulation itself — it is not clearly specified when the 48-hour countdown begins, or whether it starts the moment a border guard issues the decision.

The lawmaker stressed that stricter migration control is welcome in principle and reflects both public demand and the security situation, as was the case with earlier changes to migration policy. However, he said the new step must also be assessed practically — whether the state will have enough people and resources to actually enforce such decisions.