In recent months, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) has observed a trend that international organized crime groups are actively recruiting Latvian citizens on social networks, offering jobs for transporters in European countries – Hungary, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Poland and Serbia, but in reality there is a risk that the recruits will have to transport immigrants from third countries.
As the LETA agency was informed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the job offer and the promised salary are attractive, therefore, according to the information available to the Ministry, several dozen Latvian citizens have already accepted.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, although the recruiters promise that their job duties include the transport of goods, in reality the workers are ordered to smuggle immigrants from Iran, Syria and other third countries into the territory of the European Union.
The Farnesina explains that it is a criminal offence, for the commission of which people risk arrest and prosecution in the country where the crime was committed, and the penalties for the illegal transport of immigrants are severe.
The ministry strongly urges Latvian citizens to carefully evaluate any job offer abroad and not to accept promises of easy money from unverified employers, as there may be an intent to commit a crime behind it.
If Latvian citizens suspect that they are being offered illegal activities, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs invites them to contact the nearest State Police (VP) station. In addition, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs invites relatives who find out that a person is missing in a foreign country and it is impossible to contact him, to contact the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with a request to declare the wanted person.
Instead, the ministry invites people who have found themselves in an emergency situation abroad to contact the 24-hour duty officer of the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by phone +371 2633 7711 or by e-mail ” palidziba@mfa.gov.lv”.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 11 transporters of illegal migrants from Latvia were arrested in Hungary in 2021, but since the beginning of this year, the Embassy of Latvia in Hungary has already received reports of 30 cases and their number continues to to grow up .
The average profile of a detained person is a man aged between 20 and 40 who brought immigrants across the Serbian-Hungarian border in a minibus or a rented car in Latvia or another country or received them in the Hungarian territory near the border, with the aim of taking them to Austria.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasizes that detainees and their relatives should take into account that the Latvian diplomatic and consular representation cannot interfere in the activities of foreign courts, police and law enforcement agencies if a Latvian citizen has committed a crime in a foreign country. Nor can it provide legal advice and attorney services, as well as interpreting services.
For each detainee, the foreign country in which the person is detained provides a lawyer and, if necessary, an interpreter. If the person is not satisfied with the assigned lawyer or translator, the embassy can send a list of available lawyers and translators, however, the decision on choosing a specific service provider is made by the prisoner himself and his family members, he explains the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
