(AP) Latvia is growing worried over the increasing number of migrants attempting to cross over into the Baltic nation through the border with Belarus and has called up the military to assist border guards.
Latvia’s State Border Guard said on Tuesday that 103 people had been stopped in the previous 24 hours for trying to illegally cross the Latvia-Belarus border that runs a total of 173 kilometers (108 miles). A total of seven persons were allowed in Latvia, a European Union and NATO nation of 1.8 million, for humanitarian reasons.
Most migrants are from Africa and the Middle East, particularly Afghanistan and Syria.
The number of people turned away at the Belarus border has exceeded 100 on several days since the end of August — a substantially higher daily figure than earlier in the year, officials said.
