On Monday, border guards prevented attempts by 13 people to illegally enter Latvia from Belarus, LETA was told at the State Border Guard.
So far this year, border guards have prevented attempts by 139 people to illegally enter Latvia from Belarus. One person has been let into the country on humanitarian grounds this year.
While in the fall of 2023, around 100 attempts to enter Latvia were prevented per day on the average, this number has decreased over recent months. The first attempts to illegally enter Latvia this year were reported on January 10.
Guntis Pujats, Chief of the State Border Guard, said that since the number of illegal attempts to cross the border is on the rise again, the issue of reintroducing increased border controls will be raised.
Last year, 13,863 people were stopped from crossing the border illegally and 428 were admitted on humanitarian grounds. In 2022, 5,286 attempts to illegally cross the Latvian-Belarusian border were prevented, while 217 people were allowed to cross the border for humanitarian reasons.
Due to the pressure of illegal immigration, from August 11 of last year until February 10, 2024, border surveillance was reinforced in several administrative territories bordering Belarus.
Although the reinforced regime of the border protection system due to the pressure of illegal immigration at the Belarusian border was discontinued from February 11, operations of the Silene border crossing point were not renewed.
Source: BNS
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