A total of 3,600 people have been stopped from crossing the border illegally this year, while 12 people have been admitted to Latvia on humanitarian grounds.
Last autumn, an average of around 100 attempts to enter Latvia were prevented per day, but this number dropped significantly for several months afterward and no attempt to cross the border illegally was detected for weeks.
"Yesterday [July 30], 81 people were stopped from crossing the border. This is attributable to the fact that there were four large groups - 30, 26, 17, and 8 persons. The number is quite large.
"It depends on our neighbors, especially the Poles, they will get the army involved. In principle, the carriers are trying to move this flow to Latvia,"Vadims Grickovs, Head of the Border and Immigration Control Service of the Daugavpils Directorate of the State Border Guard, said.
Although illegal immigration does not depend on the season, last August and September saw the highest number of attempts to cross the Latvian border illegally, so the Border Guard has already started early preparations and asked for help from colleagues in Lithuania and Estonia. Cooperation with the National Armed Forces and the State Police is also ongoing.
