Estonia sends more border guards to Latvia-Belarus border; official says no reason to panic

Estonia is sending another border guard unit to Latvia on Monday morning to help secure the Latvia-Belarus border, where illegal migration pressure is currently the highest. Veiko Kommusaar, deputy director general of the Police and Border Guard Board, said helping neighboring countries is not new for Estonia.

Kommusaar said the center of migration pressure is currently on the Latvian route, and in addition to Estonia, colleagues from Finland and Lithuania are also assisting Latvia. The goal is to maintain a strong European Union external border and keep threats outside. He noted that there is no end in sight to the situation at the moment.

Although the main pressure is directed at Latvia, 81 people who arrived illegally via Belarus have been detained in Estonia over the past two weeks, most of them from African countries. According to Kommusaar, they are being organized through intermediaries to continue to other countries. This week, the first detainees are scheduled to be handed over to Latvia, as Latvia already has established channels for returning these people to the places where they began their journeys.

In addition to dealing with illegal border crossers, the Police and Border Guard Board is also focusing on human traffickers. Three intermediaries who profit from migrant movement were taken into custody last week. Kommusaar explained that the current route stands out because additional border controls between EU member states have made the network tighter, and this tight network should be applied along the entire EU external border to ensure safe movement within the Schengen area.

Following an incident in Nõmme, where residents noticed a group of unfamiliar people in an apartment building, Kommusaar stressed that there is no reason for concern, but authorities are grateful for any information from residents. Moving in groups of dozens of people is not normal and could indicate that these individuals may not have all their documents in order. Residents do not need to panic because of individual people.

Asked whether migration pressure could shift directly to the Estonian-Russian border, Kommusaar said the threat is real. Similar attempts were made at Estonia's border checkpoints a few years ago, as happened in Finland, but not since. However, organizers have both technical support and enough people to carry out similar operations in the future. At the moment, this seems unlikely in the near future, but situations can change quickly, and organizers will look for alternative routes if one direction is closed. Belarus and previously Russia have supported such situations, so they cannot be ruled out.