Lithuania sends its border guards to Latvia

Lithuania will send its border guards to Latvia to help deal with the inflow of migrants from Belarus.

Delfi reported on this.

Latvia is facing a record number of illegal migrants trying to cross the border.

The Lithuanian Ministry of Internal Affairs will send up to 20 border guards to assist the Latvian side.

“The preliminary decision is to send up to 20 border guards to help,” Arnoldas Abramavičius, Deputy Minister of the Interior of Lithuania, stated.

This decision was made amid massive attempts by illegal migrants to come to Latvia from Belarus.

On September 10 alone, 256 such attempts to cross the border were recorded, which is currently a record number.

It is noted that in total, the State Border Guard of Latvia prevented 7856 people from illegally crossing the Latvian-Belarusian border this year, and 318 people were allowed to enter Latvia for humanitarian reasons.

The Ministry of Defense of Latvia is considering the possibility of placing anti-tank mines and other engineered obstacles on the eastern border as part of an updated defense concept.

The concept focuses on engineering the external border by applying physical and technological solutions with regard to the potential threat from neighbouring countries.

In the east, Latvia shares a 137-kilometer-long land border with Russia’s Pskov region and a 172-kilometer-long border with Belarus.

A working group led by the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Internal Affairs has been set up to develop a border reinforcement project. The Latvian Armed Forces, in cooperation with the State Border Guard and state security agencies, should develop and discuss plans and mechanisms of cooperation for hybrid and conventional threat scenarios.