Latvia has asked Lithuania to send 10–15 border guards to help it handle irregular migration on its border with Belarus.
“Latvia has asked for 10–15 officers. And this is the number we are considering. At the moment we are looking into who could go,” Lina Laurinaitytė of the Lithuanian State Border Guard Service (VSAT) told BNS on Monday, adding that mostly Lithuanian border guards serving on the Russian border would be sent to Latvia.
“Another important point is that most of the officers will come from the Lithuanian-Russian border where the situation may not be so intense at the moment, and the officers themselves will benefit from gaining new experience in Latvia as it is currently still facing the problem of illegal migration,” the VSAT spokeswoman said.
The plan is to send cynologists and criminal intelligence officers, she added.
Earlier in the day, VSAT Commander Rustamas Liubajevas told LRT RADIO that Lithuania and Estonia would send officers to assist their Latvian counterparts from August 5.
Poland is now the country facing the highest inflow of migrants, followed by Latvia, he said.
According to VSAT, Lithuanian border guards turned away around 350 migrants between January 1 and July 26. Meanwhile, Latvia recorded over 3,000 attempts to cross the border, and Poland recorded 21,000 such cases.
The VSAT chief also said that Lithuania is facing the problem of so-called secondary migration where foreigners enter Lithuania via Latvia.
Lithuania also sent 20 border guards to assist Latvia in the autumn of 2023.
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