Latvian special unit Border Guard officer patrols along the fence at Latvia-Belarus border near Robeznieki, Latvia, on 8 August 2023.;
Credit: REUTERS/Ints Kalnins
VILNIUS (Reuters) - On Tuesday 15 August 2023, Latvia's defence minister ordered the army to help guard the Baltic country's border with Russian ally Belarus, after 96 attempts by illegal immigrants to cross in 24 hours.
Border Guard officers have also been recalled from their holidays to help with patrols.
Latvia has "information about a possible increase in hybrid threats", the Border Guard said in a statement. Belarusian authorities were increasingly involved in organising the flow of illegal immigrants, it said.
EU members Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, which share a border with Belarus, have worried increasingly about border crossings since hundreds of Russian battle-hardened Wagner mercenaries arrived Belarus last month at the invitation of President Alexander Lukashenko.
Lukashenko has said several times that he has been restraining Wagner fighters who want to attack Poland.
Poland has also seen an increase in the number of mainly Middle Eastern and African migrants trying to cross the border in recent months.
Poland is planning to move up to 10,000 additional troops to the border with Belarus to support the Border Guard, Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said on Thursday.
In 2021, Latvia, Poland and Lithuania faced an immigration crisis when thousands of people, mostly from the Middle East and Africa, sought to cross into Poland from Belarus but were pushed back.
