Latvia has extended the emergency regime on the border with Belarus | Major political events in Belarus: assessments, forecasts, comments | DW

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Due to the continuing influx of illegal migrants, Latvia has extended the state of emergency (ES) on the border with Belarus until February 10, 2022. Such a resolution was adopted at a meeting of the Latvian government on Tuesday, October 19, in Riga.

As before, the emergency regime will operate in four border municipalities in the southeast and south of the Baltic country. At the same time, the border services retain the authority to expel illegal immigrants arriving from Belarus.

Riga introduced an emergency regime on the border with Belarus on August 11. Initially, it was supposed to operate for three months. According to the Latvian Ministry of Internal Affairs, since then, however, nearly 1,800 people have been detained trying to illegally cross the Latvian border from Belarus.

Lukashenka is accused of organizing the delivery of refugees

The authorities of Latvia, Lithuania and Poland accuse the Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko of organizing the delivery of refugees from crisis regions to the external border of the EU. In late May, Lukashenka, in response to tougher Western sanctions against his country, announced that Minsk would no longer create obstacles for migrants on their way to the EU. Since then, there have been more and more reports of cases of illegal crossing of the external borders of the EU by Belarus.

Latvia in response to this decided to build a fence along the border with a length of several hundred kilometers. In the meantime, as a temporary measure, barbed wire fences have been installed at various sections of the border.

For joint border patrols by the forces of Germany and Poland

German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer proposes to slow down illegal migration to Germany, where about 5,000 refugees have arrived along the “Belarusian route” since the beginning of this summer, with the help of joint border patrols by the German and Polish forces.

Moreover, according to the politician, the place for such raids should be primarily the border area of ​​Poland. Seehofer has already outlined his proposals in a letter to his Polish colleague Mariusz Kamiński.

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