Fence at Latvia-Belarus border: Russians or migrants unwelcome?


Latvia plans to build a fence at its border with Belarus to prevent foreigners from entering the European Union country illegally, Normunds Garbars, chief of Latvia`s State Border Guard, said last week.

According to him, public funds had already been earmarked for designing the future fence which would start to be built in a year`s time at the earliest.

Interestingly, the relations between the two governments are good enough; there have been the years of mutually beneficial economic cooperation. And Belarusians and Latvians living close to the border seem to be very friendly towards each other.

“Our products are cheaper, that is why they [Latvians] come often to us. I work in the shop, I know them, I see them every day,” says a resident of the Belarusian town Verhnedvinsk.

“We do not want that fence! ” another woman says.

“I am a public servant. I do not entirely understand what the purpose of its constructing is – we do cooperate with Latvia well.”

There was also such opinion: “Well, they shut themselves off from us, because they fear that we may attack them. After all, they are afraid of Russia, and, perhaps, of us, Belarusians, too.”

By the way, earlier this year, Latvia built a three-kilometer-long fence at the Russian border and said that it intended to extend the total length of the fence to 92 kilometers. However, according to the Prime Minister of Latvia, is not the protection from Russia or Belarus, but only from illegal migrants from Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq who are trying to break into the European Union through Russia and Belarus.

“Strengthening of the external borders of the united Europe is crucially needed. And this is not a new Berlin Wall, but the way to restore control. We need to know who comes to us so that we could stand the opportunity to register them,” Latvia’s Prime Minister Māris Kučinskis stressed.

According to Latvia’s Border Guard Service, although there is no huge wave of illegal migrants, building the fence is an attempt to prevent uncontrolled migration. In 2014, the border guards detained 144 illegal migrants, but in 2015 – nearly 500. Since Hungary, Bulgaria and Greece constructed such fences, undocumented migrants may change a direction of mass migration and head for the Baltic countries. Meanwhile, there are no obstacles and barriers for crossing some segments of the Latvian border, the country’s officials admit.

However, despite all the assurances of Riga, a number of Belarusian experts recall that almost two years ago, Rihards Kozlovskis, Latvia’s Interior Minister named Russia’s aggression against Ukraine as a reason for constructing the fence – along with illegal migration. As the fact that the West perceives Belarus as the Kremlin’s main ally is an open secret, the fence may well be of multitask mode.

belsat.eu

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