More migrants stopped on Latvia–Belarus border this year than in all of last year

More people have tried to cross the Latvian–Belarusian border illegally this year than in the whole of last year, and have been stopped from entering Latvia. At the same time, the number of cases in which border infrastructure is damaged has risen almost threefold. This was reported by the programme "TV3 Ziņas" on the Latvian television channel TV3.

A variety of attempts

The programme said the attempts to get into Latvia vary widely. Migrants are looking for any gap through which they might cross the border, and they use different ways of trying to get into the country.

What the figures show

The comparison is clear: before the year is over, the number of people stopped already exceeds last year's total. The near-threefold rise in damage cases at the same time suggests that the border infrastructure is under considerably greater pressure than before.

The source does not give exact figures for the number of people stopped or for the damage cases, so the precise scale of the increase is unknown. It also does not describe in detail the methods migrants use to try to enter the country, or how exactly the border infrastructure is being damaged.