Due to the increasing influx of migrants, the State Border Guard will ask the government to decide on the partial closure of the “Pāternieki” border control point in Krāslava Municipality, allowing its crossing only for motor vehicles, said the Chief of the State Border Guard, Guntis Pujāts, in an interview with Latvian Television’s “Rīta Panorāma” programme.
Pujāts explained that this proposal was submitted for review by the Cabinet of Ministers on Monday. He stated that the government will decide on the timeframe, which could be around six months.
If the flow of illegal migrants reaches a critical level, the State Border Guard may request the complete closure of the border crossing, he confirmed.
Pujāts revealed that this border control point was temporarily closed over the weekend for two reasons.
Firstly, due to unstable operation of technical systems. Secondly, there was a risk that the crossing could be used for the instrumentalization of illegal migration. Border guards observed groups of migrants gathering on the Belarusian side.
“After analysing the information, high risks were identified that the checkpoint could be used for a massive push of migrants into Latvia from Belarus. Observations confirm this,” explained the head of the State Border Guard.
Pujāts disclosed that several dozen people had gathered on the other side of the border, and this preventive measure was taken to prevent an attempted entry by several hundred people into Latvia.
Around midnight on Sunday, the operations of the border checkpoint were restored, along with the functioning of technical systems.
Pujāts stated that this was the first time a decision to close the border control point had to be made immediately. He also reminded that, in response to this aggressive behaviour, other border control points have already been closed.
The head of the State Border Guard pointed out that a large number of illegal migrants are heading towards Poland, with up to 100 people per day during the winter period. “We cannot rule out the possibility that at some point, these flows could be redirected toward Latvia,” he explained.
Earlier, the Latvian news agency LETA reported that on the 13th of March, the Polish Senate approved a bill allowing Warsaw to temporarily restrict asylum rights in response to Belarus’s hybrid warfare strategy of pushing thousands of illegal migrants into Poland.
The bill allows Poland to temporarily limit the right to seek asylum and extend restrictions if approved by parliament.
The legislation was supported by 72 senators in the 100-member chamber and now requires the president’s signature to come into force.
Last year, the European Union announced that member states bordering Russia and Belarus are permitted to restrict asylum rights for migrants if Moscow and Minsk use them as a tool of aggression.