Jānis Sjakste lives in the village of Nirza in Ludza municipality, but he owns a farmhouse a couple of kilometers away. The fact that someone had broken into the property was spotted by a neighbor. She had been suspicious because migrants were spotted and later detained on the road near the house.
Sjakste said: “The door was broken, the window smashed. All littered with toilet paper, the grass full of it. And they had come to the bees, taken out, eaten honey. Everything was left like a pigsty in the room, too.”
Sjakste came, looked at it all, then left. “Okay, we locked up there yesterday. We didn't tidy anything up. But today, in the morning, a group of eight people are there again. The house was broken into again. They were detained, taken away by border guards,” the owner said.
Vladimirs Šersts, Daugavpils Administration representative of the State Border Guard, said: “Such cases are not common. These are isolated cases. In the case of the action of the Border Guard, officials shall be appointed immediately to travel to the place and verify the information.”
The Border Guard explained that abandoned homes in the border area are receiving increased attention.
Jānis Sjakste had got the impression that border offenders had a map of such houses, since his was about 25 kilometers away from the Belarusian border. State Border Guard emphasized that the law enforcement should be alerted of suspicious people not only on property but also on roads.
Border guards, police officers, and representatives of the National Armed Forces all continue to guard the border. 122 attempts to enter Latvia illegally were prevented on Thursday, and an average of around 100 are prevented each day.
