Amnesty International’s accusations against Latvia for its mistreatment of migrants are based on one–sided claims without evidence on Friday, August 12, was said in the interview at LTV Rīta Panorāmas by Head of the State Border Guard.
As Head of the State Border Guard, Guntis Pujāts, said, Amnesty International employees met with a number of representatives of state institutions who provided comprehensive information about the situation on the border between Latvia and Belarus, but nothing of this information appeared in the organization’s report, and only one–sided position was presented.
In the report accusations of individual migrants about Latvia’s actions are presented, but no evidence has been collected to support the accusations. In addition, Pujāts emphasized that no seriously injured or dead migrant was found on the border of Latvia.
The head of the border guard expressed his belief that the movement of migrants is deliberately organised by the Belarusian regime and imposes threat to Latvia, He consider sthat it could also be a deliberate attempt to undermine the European asylum system in order to make it more difficult to provide assistance to war refugees from Ukraine
Pujāts noted that since august it is seen that Latvia has again been selected as a target country of the organized migrant movement.
Before that, it was Lithuania, where it has been observed that Belarus slowly moved migrants from the south to the north, who now they have reached the border of Latvia again.
«We have information that Belarus organizes and deliberately directs migrants to enter Latvia illegally and helps violators, for example by cutting fences,» Pujāts added.
Currently, State Border Guard is monitoring this border more closely on its own, but assistance has been requested from the State Police and the National Armed Forces (NBS). State Police have already replied that they will help, but the response from the NBS has not followed yet.
Previously, the report distributed by Amnesty International, stated that Latvia has mistreated and even tortured migrants coming from Belarus, keeping them in the forest for several months.
For about a year, Latvia has been taking measures to prevent migrants from Belarus from entering the country.
The migrant movement mainly were made up of people from the middle east.
As it is the emphasized by Latvia, this movement of people across the border has been purposefully organized by the ruling regime of Belarus, as a hybrid war operation against our country.
Latvia emphasizes that, in accordance with international law, it is possible for these migrants to request asylum already in the first safe country they arrive in, in this case it is Belarus.
Meanwhile amnesty international criticized Latvia’s position in the statement issued at the end of July.
The organization pointed out that Latvia plans to extend the state of emergency on Latvia’s eastern border until November of this year. The organization expressed the opinion that this approach of the Latvian government threatens the human rights of asylum seekers.
A wider report on Latvia was promised in the second week of August, but the organization postponed its publication.
Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatović has also expressed concerns about possible human rights violations of migrants on the Latvia–Belarus border, calling on the Latvian authorities to thoroughly investigate these cases.