The last couple of days show that the number of violations committed by illegal migrants is on a rise, as reported by Chief of Latvian State Border Guard Guntis Pujāts in an interview to LTV programme Rīta panorāma.
“January and the start of February were mostly calm. However, the last couple of days indicate that the number of border violations is once again on a rise. In February there were 75 attempts to illegally cross Latvia’s border. So far in March we’ve seen 46, and this is just the beginning of the month,” said Pujāts.
He said that because of the increasing number of violations, the topic of putting the State Border Guard on high alert again will be considered.
When it comes to border infrastructure, Pujāts said the damage caused to Latvian infrastructure can be “directly traced to officials of the country on the other side”.
“We can see it is not the initiative of just the illegal immigrants,” he continued.
Last year Latvian authorities prevented 13 863 people from illegally crossing the border. 428 were let in for humanitarian reasons. In 2022 authorities prevented 5 286 people from illegally crossing the Latvian-Belarusian border. 217 were let in for humanitarian reasons.
Because of the increased pressure from illegal immigration, it was previously decided to put the State Border Guard on high alert along the Belarusian border until the 10th of February 2024.
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