Latvia Closing Border Crossing On Belarusian Border

In order to prevent the threat of illegal migration.

Today, the new government of Latvia has decided to close the Silene checkpoint on the border with Belarus, the Cabinet of Ministers told bb.lv.

The government justifies its decision by a sharp increase in the number of illegal border crossings between Latvia and Belarus in recent weeks, as well as the need to redistribute resources at the border.

The pressure of illegal immigration tripled in a short period of time. From September 1-19, Border Guard officers stopped 1,773 attempts to cross the border between Latvia and Belarus illegally, compared to 1,615 attempts to cross the border between Latvia and Belarus during the entire month of August.

In order not to affect significantly the freight traffic and urgent journeys related to work duties, the activities at the border between Latvia and Belarus will continue at the border crossing point "Paternieki".

The Latvian government also reported that Lukashenka's open support of the armed conflict in Ukraine is seen as an additional risk and a possible motivation for the Minsk regime to continue its efforts to destabilise the situation on the border with Latvia. The reduced number of persons crossing the border between Latvia and Belarus reduces the corresponding risks, the government said.

For Reference

The Belarusian-Latvian border is 172 km 912 metres long. It starts from the triple junction of the border with Lithuania in the north and stretches to the triple junction with Russia in the north-east. It is part of the border between the European Union and the Union State.

Until now, there have been two road crossings on the border:

- "Hryhoraushchyna" - "Paternieki";

- "Urbany" - "Silene".