In Latvia, the situation is particularly difficult: dozens of Lithuanian officials have already gone to help

This assistance is organized by the initiative of the Lithuanian VSAT on the border of neighboring Latvia with Belarus, due to the recent particularly difficult situation of illegal migration.

Two dozen Lithuanian border guards, as they worked in Latvia before VSAT officialswill carry out border monitoring, prevention of illegal migration from Belarus and other actions related to border protection in the most problematic sections coordinated by Latvian colleagues.

As before, Lithuanian VSAT officers go to the second part of the aid mission in their official transport and with their equipment and weapons. Neighbors will be assisted by border guards from VSAT Pagėgii and Vilnius national teams, as well as from the Special Purpose Department of VSAT and the Criminal Investigations Board. This group will also include 6 VSAT cynologists with service dogs.

It is planned that they will also work at the Latvian border with Belarus for at least two weeks. Later, decisions on such assistance will be made taking into account the situation at the neighbors’ border with Belarus. The expenses related to this secondment are covered by the funds of the Lithuanian VSAT.

Lately, Latvia has been under extreme pressure from illegal migration organized by Belarus. With this country, Latvia has a border 4 times shorter than that of Lithuania with Belarus (173 km and 679 km, respectively). This year, one and a half times more illegal migrants came to Latvia than to Lithuania (according to midnight data from Monday to Tuesday, 9429 and 1711, respectively).

Every day, three-digit numbers of foreigners storm the Latvian border from Belarus, whose arrival at the border and their actions are undoubtedly coordinated by the Belarusian services. The record in the entire migration crisis was September 10, when as many as 256 migrants from Belarus were refused entry to Latvia.

By the way, since the beginning of the migration crisis caused by the Belarusian regime in 2021. summer until 2023 At the beginning of the year, Lithuania was a bigger target of its eastern neighbor than Latvia. Both in 2021 and 2022. twice as many migrants tried to enter Lithuania than Latvia.

The situation changed when in 2022 at the end of the year, a physical barrier consisting of a concertina pyramid and a protective fence was completed along the majority of Lithuania’s border with Belarus (with the exception of isolated areas where the construction of such an engineering facility was not carried out due to natural obstacles – i.e. swamps, access to water bodies, etc., but here the border is controlled by other technical and organizational means).

Also everything Lithuanian border with Belarus is controlled by modern video surveillance systems, which record any approach from the Belarusian side. The complex of such changes, including VSAT’s organizational measures on the border with Belarus, had significance for this year’s changes in the direction of illegal migration from Belarus.

It is true that this year Poland, which has a 418-km border with Belarus, saw even more illegal migrants (21,141 people).

In total, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia from 2021 since the beginning of the policy of turning back, which was applied at the beginning of August, according to midnight data from Monday to Tuesday, 112,359 illegal migrants have already been prevented from entering Belarus.

Poland carried out the largest number of arrests in just over two years – 72,586. Last year, 36,448 illegal migrants tried to enter this country, last year – 14,997, this year – 21,141.

From 2021 on August 3, when VSAT officials were given the right to turn around immigrants from Belarus trying to cross the border in unauthorized places, 21,028 of them were denied entry by Lithuanian border guards. VSAT prevented 8,106 such foreigners from illegally entering Lithuania from Belarus, in 2022 – 11,211, and this year – 1,711.

Latvia has prevented a total of 17,745 such foreigners from illegally entering Belarus (4,026 in 2021, 5,290 last year, 9,429 this year).