(Reuters) Latvia’s government decided on Tuesday to close one of its two border crossing points with Belarus as the prime minister accused Minsk of again using illegal migrants as a “hybrid threat” to undermine the Baltic state’s security.
In 2021, Latvia, Poland and Lithuania faced an immigration crisis when thousands of people, mostly from the Middle East and Africa, began crossing from Belarus.
The three countries, all members of NATO and the European Union, eventually resorted to pushing the migrants back, a policy that remains in place.
Fifty officers now working at the Silene border station will be redeployed to guard the actual border, in what Latvia’s border guard chief has described as “the most tense situation since 2021” due to an influx of migrants from Belarus.
