Up To 10 Cases Over Organisation Of Illegal Migration Initiated In Latvia Every Week

Migrants break into the country from Belarus.

The State Border Guard Service (SBS) of Latvia initiates weekly in 8-10 criminal cases for organising illegal migration - both for transporting people across the border, as well as for their further transfer to other EU countries. Guntis Pujāts, head of the State Police, reported about it, DELFI writes. Migrants are breaking into Latvia from Belarus.

The flow of migrants on the Belarusian-Latvian border is not decreasing, said Guntis Puyats. For example, 146 people were detained on October 3. This is the highest figure among the EU countries bordering Belarus. During the same day, 25 foreigners tried to get to Poland, while 20 - to Lithuania.

The geography of the countries of origin of illegal migrants is very wide - they come from Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, India and many other countries.

This summer there has been an increase in the aggressiveness of illegal migrants, Pujāts emphasised. Since the beginning of the year, border guards have used firearms four times to stop vehicles carrying migrants. There have been cases when migrants threw stones at border guards.

According to Pujāts, some of the migrants have a military background, for example, they try to damage not only the fence but also technical equipment at the border.

Latvia is not the final destination of migrants - they mostly tend to Germany, where they want to take advantage of asylum mechanisms, Pujāts said.

In total, Latvian border guards have prevented almost 10,500 people from entering the country illegally since the beginning of the year. In August, the Latvian government reported that since August 11, 2021, more than 14,000 migrants had tried to cross the border outside border crossing points, and 282 people, including 117 children, had been allowed into the country on humanitarian grounds.