A British government plan to deny asylum to refugees from a list of 10 countries -- including Latvia -- has come under criticism from a parliamentary committee

A British government plan to deny asylum to refugees from a list of 10 countries -- including Latvia -- has come under criticism from a parliamentary committee. Parliament's Joint Committee on Human Rights says that "well-authenticated threats to human rights" require that refugees from these countries still be able to get protection in the United Kingdom. Britain's Home Secretary David Blunkett has proposed under the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Bill that the 10 nations that are to be invited to join the European Union should be put on a "white list." That could automatically deny asylum to refugees from those countries, which include Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. But the Joint Committee on Human Rights says in a report issued Oct. 23 that "(t)he presumption that a country is safe is of questionable validity." In the case of Latvia, the report refers to a number of human rights violations, including living conditions at an asylum detention center, the treatment of disabled and mentally ill persons and the country's language laws.