Videos circulating on international media showed large numbers of people being herded towards the border by armed Belarusian personnel.
"First of all I want to repeat that Latvia strongly condemns Belarus' hybrid operation against the European Union, organizing and sending third country citizens over the European Union border," Kariņš said after a meeting of the coalition cooperation council Monday.
"We follow carefully what happened today at the Belarus-Poland border and this evening after this press conference I will be having dicussions with both the Polish and Lithuanian prime ministers," he told journalists in an online press conference.
"Latvia's border continues to be reinforced with a round-the-clock regime and of course our border guards national guard and police officers have a high level of professionalism, experience and expertise and we are ready to offer support in all cases. But out border is closely monitored and we strongly condemn what the Belarus regime is doing at the moment against the whole European Union."
Earlier on Monday, Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs called for the EU to speed up its response to the crisis and introduce additional sanctions.
As Lukashenko regime reinforces its hybrid attack on the EU's external borders the EU must respond with strong support to #Poland and other affected countries. EU must speed up work on additional sanctions and to co-finance the reinforcement of its external borders
— Edgars Rinkēvičs (@edgarsrinkevics) November 8, 2021
A large number of videos have been circulating on social media showing columns of apparent migrants being herded towards the border, and a Polish Defense Ministry video showed masked people on the Belarusian side of the border trying to cut through barbed wire with wire cutters.
Kolejne próby forsowania granicy przez migrantów w rejonie Kuźnicy. pic.twitter.com/0Qv2K1RVcz
— Ministerstwo Obrony Narodowej 🇵🇱 (@MON_GOV_PL) November 8, 2021
Late Monday night President Egils Levits added that he had spoken with his Polish counterpart about the matter and also said sanctions against airlines and airports should be considered.
Have spoken with @AndrzejDuda about events on the border btw Poland and Belarus.Weaponising of humans by Lukashenko regime despicable.Need to consider sanctions against airlines&airports involved in this human trafficking. We have a right&duty to protect our common ext.border.
— Egils Levits (@valstsgriba) November 8, 2021
