March 17, Pozirk. Latvia temporarily closed the Paternieki checkpoint yesterday to deny entry to “a group of Africans heading to the European Union with valid documents,” the Belarusian State Border Committee has claimed, without presenting any evidence.
The agency has not specified whether the foreigners had valid visas or other grounds for entry into Latvia.
Latvian border guards blocked the road with a temporary metal fence both for entry and exit after at least ten foreigners were denied entry, it said.
After the incident, Latvia’s State Border Guard (SBG) asked the government to close the Paternieki checkpoint for pedestrians crossing the border from Belarus over a rise in irregular border crossings, the Latvian media reported, citing SBG Chief Guntis Pujāts.
Latvia closed the Paternieki checkpoint for hours in response to a suspicious concentration of dozens of people on the Belarusian side, he said, noting that border guards feared that if the crowd grows to hundreds, they could storm the border.
The Belarusian State Border Committee said it “immediately reacted to the suspension of traffic, offering the Africans to return to the Belarusian checkpoint, so that the Latvian services could resume operations.” However, foreigners agreed to return to Belarus from the EU territory only six hours later.
Belarusian border guards offered the Africans tea and organized their transfer back to Belarus, the committee said.
Meanwhile, Pujāts, Latvia’s border chief, said that the SBG may demand the full closure should the illegal migration reach critical levels.
In September 2023, Latvia closed the Silene border crossing at its shared border with Belarus indefinitely, citing concerns about illegal migration at the Belarusian-EU border continuing since spring 2021. Paternieki is now the only operating checkpoint between the two countries.
