The Latvian Border Police arrested fifteen people last night who were trying to enter irregularly from Belarus using a tunnel dug by themselves, an underground infrastructure that the Latvian authorities locate for the first time.
The incident took place in the locality of Skrudaliena, near the Silene border crossing, in the southeast of the country. "While we were trying to determine more precisely how they entered our country, we discovered this hidden tunnel, the first of its kind in Latvia," explained the Minister of the Interior, Janis Dombrava, reports the LSM portal.
So far, the border forces had only detected attempts to overcome the fence, so Latvia will expand the investigations to check if other underground passages have been opened along the border with Belarus, which they blame for promoting irregular immigration as part of a hybrid war and in response to the sanctions imposed by the European Union.
In recent weeks, the authorities of Lithuania, another of the countries that along with Poland suffers this migratory pressure attributed to Belarus, have warned of an increase in these underground tunnels.
The head of the Lithuanian Border Guard, Rustamas Liubajevas, even accused the Belarusian authorities of "turning a blind eye," when they did not provide the necessary tools and supplies to these people who intend to cross to build these cavities.