MINSK, August 26. /TASS/. The Belarusian State Border Control Committee reported an attempt by Latvian border control to forcefully push a group of Afghan citizens onto Belarusian territory Thursday.
"On August 25, border control forces of the Bigosovo checkpoint of the Polotsk border control unit thwarted another attempt to illegally push migrants from Latvian territory to the Belarusian one. In particular, the Latvian State Border Guard servicemen delivered 21 citizens of Afghanistan, including 11 children, to the border with the use of physical force," the Belarusian Committee reported.
The agency noted that the migrants arrived in Latvia on August 23, intending to travel to Germany. According to the refugees, despite their applications for refugee status, the entire group was delivered to the Belarusian border in two days. The migrants were told that Latvia does not accept refugees and that cars are waiting for them that will take them to Germany.
"The foreign citizens told Belarusian border control officers that they were brought to the border in the middle of the night and were forcefully sent toward Belarusian territory," the Committee said.
Latvia, and Lithuania before that, is currently facing a problem of migrants from the territory of Belarus. In order to protect its borders, Riga has tightened its borders and mobilized border control forces and the army. The Latvian government imposed a state of emergency at the border, effective between August 11 and November 10, to authorize the border control to keep migrants outside.
The Latvian government also decided to speed up the construction of infrastructure at the Belarusian border, initiated several years ago, approving 1.7 million euros worth of funding to install a barbed wire fence.