Riga, Aug 7: Nearly 40 undocumented migrants were detained when trying to cross into Latvia’s border from Belarus, the country’s State Border Guard said on Saturday. “Thirty-eight individuals who have crossed the state border illegally have been detained in accordance with the procedures set by the immigration law and placed in accommodation centers for detained foreigners,” the border agency said in a statement. Latvia has recently witnessed a rise in the numbers of migrants crossing into its territory from Belarus after its neighbor, Lithuania, became a new “eastern front” for illegal migration to the European Union. Europe believes Minsk is using migrants to get back at the European Union’s decision to impose political and economic sanctions on the country. The Belarusian authorities, in turn, argue that they cannot deal with the migration issue due to Western sanctions.
