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Latvian border guards prevent attempts by 395 migrants to cross border with Belarus

According to the chief of the state border guard service, "each day the border guards stop and turn back more than 50 people"

© EPA-EFE/VALDA KALNINA

RIGA, August 16. /TASS/. Latvia’s border guards have prevented attempts by 395 illegal migrants to cross the border into the country from Belarus, the chief of the state border guard service, Guntis Pujats, said on Monday.

"By the midnight of August 15, we turned back 395 trespassers. The work is continuing. Another two groups that tried to get into Latvia were identified. This process is continuous. The peak was on Thursday when 101 migrants were turned back. Each day the border guards stop and turn back more than 50 people," Pujats said on the Latvian radio.

"If people are identified the moment they are crossing the border, they are told this is a criminal offense and asked to refrain from committing a crime. If not, we take measures to prevent it," he said, adding that the border guards keep a close watch on whether any of the people need medical aid.

He stressed that Latvia was keen to avoid a worsening of the situation on the border with Belarus.

"Each case of border crossing is examined individually, depending on the situation. These are separate tactical moments I would not like to speak about in public," Pujats said.

He stated that the illegal migrants were unhappy about the current situation.

"They say they want to get back home to Iraq as soon as possible, but they are forced to cross the border from Belarus. We tell them we are not Belarus or Iraq and send them back," he said. "They have realized that this trip is not what they had expected."

Latvia was next to follow Lithuania in encountering the problem of illegal migration from the territory of Belarus. In order to protect the border, Riga intensified its control and mobilized the resources of the State Border Guard and the armed forces. Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins announced the goal of accelerating the construction of infrastructure on the border with Belarus. The Latvian government introduced an emergency situation regime on the border starting from August 11 until November 10 in order to grant the border guards the authority to expel the migrants back to Belarus and approved earmarking 1.7 million euros to install a barbed-wire fence on the border.

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