Latvia Extends State of Emergency on Belarus Border Amid Increasing Migrant Flows

The State Border Guard explained that each case is evaluated individually. People with medical conditions that cannot move, such as frostbite, are usually not sent back immediately.

In connection with the pressure of illegal immigration, the emergency situation in Daugavpils, Ludza and Krāslava counties has been established until May 10.

Migrant flows tend to increase, so the state of emergency is likely to be prolonged.

Vadims Grickovs, head of the Border Control and Immigration Control Service of the Daugavpils Administration of the State Border Guard, told Latvian Radio that “the hybrid attack is still ongoing, the Belarusian side continues to push this case forward, its flow is unabated”.

“If we talk about January, then 326 were suspended, in February – 397, in March there is an increase – already 559 and in the middle of April there are 298, almost 300 [nelegāli robežas šķērsotāji]. It will probably be more than in March. The trend is increasing, yes. In the winter months, they were mostly men in their 20s and 30s. Currently, there is a trend that families with children are already leaving. Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria,” Grickov said.

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In the summer of 2021, the number of migrants trying to illegally enter the territory of Latvia, Lithuania and Poland from Belarus increased significantly. The officials of the Baltic States and Poland stated that the Belarusian authorities deliberately do not put up obstacles to crossing the border in order to punish these countries for supporting the Belarusian opposition and sanctions against the regime of Alexander Lukashenko. The European Union characterizes such an action as the deployment of a hybrid war.

Taking into account the still existing risks related to illegal migration and the hybrid attacks carried out by the Belarusian regime on the Latvian-Belarusian border, the state of emergency on the Latvian-Belarusian border in the Ludza, Krāslava, Upper Daugava regions and the Daugavpils state city has been extended several times. The state of emergency is now in effect until May 10.

Security risks were further aggravated by Russia’s war against Ukraine launched on February 24, 2022, which is also supported by the authorities of Belarus. In order to strengthen the security of the Latvia-Belarus border in the long term, at the end of 2021, the Ministry of the Interior started developing the necessary security solution plans for strengthening long-term monitoring, which were submitted to the European Commission in March 2022, which supported several actions proposed by the Ministry of the Interior.

In general, the project envisages the construction of a 173-kilometer long Latvian-Belarusian border strip. Initially, it was expected that the first phase of the fence, 85.8 kilometers long, would be completed by the spring of 2023, and the second phase, 63.9 kilometers long, by the spring of 2024. However, the construction of the Latvian-Belarusian border fence has been postponed in the swamps, the builders promise to recover what was delayed in the summer.

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