146 migrants were deterred from crossing the border illegally on Monday and 220 on Sunday.
The State Border Guard starts on average 8-10 criminal proceedings per week for organizing illegal migration – both for transporting people across the border of Latvia and for transporting them to other European countries.
The geography of the countries of origin of illegal migrants is very broad: they come from Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, India, Sri Lanka, and many other countries.
Pujāts repeated that border crossers are seen to have become more aggressive this summer. In one case a border guard has been attacked, while in four cases police and border guard have had to use a firearm to stop them.
There have also been cases of migrants from Belarus throwing stones at Latvian border guards.
Pujāts estimated that some of the illegal migrants had military experience in Syria, Afghanistan, or Iraq. “They can be seen damaging not only the fence but also the technical equipment of the border,” Pujāts told LTV.
Latvia is usually not the end goal of migrants – mostly they aim for Germany, where they want to use the asylum request system.
