2023-11-02 11:55:49
ESTPOL8 command. Photo: PPA
The Police and Border Guard Board has sent a fourth ESTPOL8 team to Latvia to support our southern neighbors and curb illegal migration on the Latvian-Belarusian border, the PPA press service announced on Thursday.
On Thursday 2 November, the fourth ESTPOL8 rotation began work to support the Latvian Border Guard in curbing illegal migration. On the Latvian-Belarusian border, an average of 100 people illegally crossing the border are detained per day. The task of the police unit, consisting of 12 people, is to participate in ground patrols on the Latvian border, surveillance using drones and monitoring the situation. The business trip will last two weeks.
According to the head of the border guard, Veiko Kommusaar, the Police and Border Guard Board is closely monitoring developments on the external borders of Latvia, Lithuania and Poland with Belarus and daily exchanges information with colleagues from the border guards of neighboring countries. “Due to the migration pressure coming from Belarus, the Police and Border Guard Board has been supporting the Latvian Border Guard in curbing illegal migration since September 20th. To date, we have sent four ESTPOL8 rotations to help the Latvians. Since there are no signs that migration pressure will begin to decrease in the near future, the Police and Border Guard Board is ready to continue to provide a police unit to Latvia,” said Kommusaar.
The head of the fourth rotation of ESTPOL8, Ats Puvis, noted that the unit’s goal is to provide assistance to its southern neighbors in patrolling the border and detaining migrants illegally staying in Latvia. “The team is made up of people working in different prefectures and divisions in order to provide the Latvian border guards with the most comprehensive support. The deployment will also provide our police and border guards with invaluable experience in curbing mass migration,” Puvis said.
The Police and Border Guard Board has sent four ESTPOL8 teams to Latvia, which have been supporting our southern neighbors since 20 September. During this time, police units of the Police and Border Guard Board detained almost 700 people who crossed the border illegally. The first rotation returned from Latvia on October 4, the second on October 18 and the third on November 1. Previously, Estonia assisted Lithuania in containing migration pressure from Belarus in 2021 by sending ESTPOL5 teams and in 2023 by sending a police unit ESTPOL7 in connection with the NATO summit.
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