The Latvian border guards of the Kaplava area observed several persons who illegally entered Latvia.
“The crossing of the fence was helped by representatives of the Belarusian authorities by cutting the wires of the permanent fence structure, later also by closing the hole created in the fence in order to prevent the men illegally entering Latvia from returning to Belarus,” the Border Guard said in a statement.
The Border Guard called the incident another provocation.
All border offenders have been intercepted and returned to the country of origin, as provided for by the regulatory framework for the state of emergency in the border area.
"The persons were interviewed but given the regulation on the state of emergency, they were turned back to Belarus. There have been conclusions earlier about Belarus services not only standing by but organizing illegal border crossing from Belarus to Latvia and thus destabilizing the security in the border area," said State Border Guard chief Guntis Pujāts.
This year, by August 3, 5,285 people had been deterred from crossing the border but 263 were allowed into Latvia for humanitarian reasons.
