On Thursday, December 30, officials of the State Border Guard prevented 47 people from crossing the Latvian-Belarusian border illegally. On Friday, December 31, 85 people tried to cross, another 80 on January 1, and 36 on January 2. All were turned back.
Since August 10, a total of 4,161 people have been deterred from crossing the border illegally. There are no detainees at the weekend for illegal crossing of the state border.
Since the introduction of the state of emergency, 94 people have not been prevented from crossing the border on humanitarian grounds, and a total of 446 third-country nationals were detained after illegally crossing in 2021.
In the summer of 2021, the number of migrants trying to enter the territory of Latvia, Lithuania and Poland illegally increased significantly as a result of the state-sponsored human trafficking operation being run by the Lukashenko regime in Belarus. Most migrants have come from Iraq.