Estonia has sent another border guard unit to Latvia to help maintain order on the Latvian-Belarusian border, where the pressure from migration is becoming increasingly noticeable, writes ERR News.
Meanwhile, officials have warned that similar pressure could also be directed at Estonia’s borders.
Veiko Kommusaar, Deputy Director General of the Estonian Police and Border Guard Board (PPA), said that helping neighboring countries is nothing new. He said in an interview with Vikerraadio that the main point of migration pressure is currently in Latvia, and that Lithuanians and Finns have also come to help. This is being done to maintain a strong external border of the European Union, and that the threat would remain on the other side. He added that there is no end in sight to the tense situation yet.
Although the situation is most tense on the Latvian border, migrants who have managed to cross the border have also managed to reach Estonia. In the past two weeks, 81 people have been detained who illegally arrived from Belarus. Most of them originate from African countries. Kommusaar explained that from Estonia they are being directed to other countries through intermediaries. He said that the goal is to deliver the first detainees to Latvia in the first week of August, and there is a simple reason for this – while Estonians are helping Latvians at the external border,
Latvians have already created channels to return migrants to their countries of origin.
In addition to searching for migrants in Estonia, the PPA is also actively working to find people smugglers. Kommusaar said that the PPA is very strict about arresting intermediaries who profit from organized crime. Three criminals were detained in the last week of July.
As for the reason why alternative routes are being sought through Estonia, Kommusaar explained that over the years, European Union countries have introduced additional border checks and compensation mechanisms, which has led to the network becoming more strained. He added, however, that such a network should cover the EU’s external border to maintain safe and easy movement within the Schengen area.
After the incident in Nõmme, where local residents noticed a group of unknown persons in an apartment building and informed the authorities, who detained the migrants, questions about public safety have arisen. Kommusaar stressed that there is no reason for concern, and that the authorities are grateful for the vigilance of the population. He said that groups of dozens of people moving around may indicate that these persons do not have the necessary documents and have arrived via illegal routes, but there is no need to worry about individual individuals.
Read also: New British PM vows to relentlessly fight migrants in the English Channel
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