{"id":178477,"date":"2026-03-07T15:12:06","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T12:12:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/178477\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","slug":"low-migrant-activity-reported-at-belarus-eu-border-in-early-march","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/178477\/","title":{"rendered":"Low migrant activity reported at Belarus-EU border in early March"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

March 7, Pozirk.<\/em> <\/strong>Of the three European Union neighbors, only Latvia reported irregular migrant activity in the first five days of March. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Latvia recorded five attempts by third-country foreigners to cross outside checkpoints from Belarus on March 2, according to Pozirk\u2019s<\/em> analysis of border guards\u2019 data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compared to the first five days of March of the previous years, migrant activity was extremely low: 117 attempts were reported in the same period in 2025, 345 in 2024 and 570 in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the start of 2026, Latvia has thwarted 25 such crossings, marking a significant decrease from the similar period last year, when it reported 224 attempts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the start of 2026, Belarus\u2019 western neighbors thwarted 130 irregular crossings, with 40 attempts targeting Lithuania and 65, Poland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last month, the number of irregular crossings on the Belarus\u2013EU border more than tripled compared to January, rising to 97 from 28. However, the total for February was seven times lower than a year earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The flow of people desperate to cross into the EU surged in spring 2021 after Alaksandar \u0141uka\u0161enka, angered by EU sanctions, had indicated that Minsk would not prevent asylum seekers from Africa and Asia from using Belarus as a route to the EU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In June 2021, the Belarusian government suspended a readmission agreement with the EU in response to sanctions that followed the forced landing of a Ryanair flight in Minsk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Latvia, Lithuania and Poland call the migration crisis a \u201chybrid attack\u201d orchestrated by Minsk and Moscow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prime ministers of Lithuania, Latvia and Poland signed a joint declaration on February 26 on strengthening cooperation to beef up border security and respond to hybrid threats. The governments committed \u201cto resist the instrumentalization of migration and other hybrid threats at the external borders of the European Union, including land, sea, and airspace.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The three countries agreed to develop corresponding measures within the existing legal framework of bilateral cooperation and on the EU level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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