The number of illegal migrants on the Belarusian-Latvian border is rapidly going up, and border guards have to use their issued firearms more and more often to detain these perpetrators, said Minister of the Interior Rihards Kozlovskis in an interview to TV3 programme 900 seconds.
He said last night Latvian State Border Guard prevented an attempt by more than 100 people to illegally cross the Latvian-Belarusian border. Lately having 100 of such cases daily has become an everyday occurrence.
The most shocking fact is that illegal border-crossing attempts are becoming more and more violent. Border guards are forced to use their issued firearms more and more often to apprehend perpetrators.
“The are justified concerns, I believe, that in the future we can expect resistance or even weapons being used against our border guards,” said Kozlovskis.
He stressed that Latvian border guards receive assistance from the police and the National Guard. This helps deal with the pressure from Belarus. On top of that, Latvian authorities have come up with an action plan for various future scenarios.
At the same time, the minister says border guards work very intensely – without weekends or vacations. All efforts are put into opposing the pressure coming from Belarus.
The politician said the government will soon decide on closing down Silene border checkpoint. This would help free up border guards to divert towards defending the green border.
As previously reported, so far this year Latvian border guards prevented more than 8 500 people from crossing the Latvian-Belarusian border. More than 330 people were let into Latvia for humanitarian purposes.
Because of the rapidly growing hybrid threat level on the Latvian-Belarusian border, Latvian State Border Guard have mobilised additional resources to enhance border security.
National Armed Forces and State Police also provide assistance in keeping the state border safe.
Also read: Latvian Minister of Climate and Energy to address electricity tariff problem first