Latvia, Rīga – On April 21, the Latvian authorities caught again Vietnamese migrants – a group of nine, and two smugglers. They caught them on the Russian border, told to the press the Latvian border police.
Since the beginning of the year, the Latvian authorities caught 93 illegals. Approximately 50 of them were Vietnamese. Last year, 463 migrants had been apprehended in the Baltic state for illegal crossing of the border. The majority of these migrants too were Vietnamese.
Latvia has already planned to build up a 90km long, 2.7m high barbed-wired border fence on the whole Latvian-Russian border, to stop the illegal immigration. Rīga planned to spend € 17 millions to build it up. The border fence had been started on last December and will be equipped with video cameras and motion sensors. At the end of March, 3km had been built up, and Rīga plans to build up 24km this year.
The Minister of Interior Rihards Kozlovskis said that Latvia’s border protection strengthening program will cost until 2020 up to € 80 millions.
According to the Latvian intelligence services, most of the illegal immigrants are coming from central Asia or far East Asia, aiming to reach Scandinavian countries passing through Baltic countries.
