Latvia stopped 28 migrants who crossed the eastern European Union’s border from Belarus using a tunnel. The underground passage, found around 20 metres from the border, was concealed with moss.
It is the second such tunnel discovered in Latvia. On 10 August, Latvian border guards found another tunnel that had been used by 15 migrants to enter the country from Belarus.
Latvia has been experiencing a rise in irregular migration in recent months — something that European leaders call a hybrid attack by Aliaksandr Lukashenka’s regime — as the country is preparing for parliamentary elections on 3 October.
The country of 2 million has already stopped nearly 10,000 attempts to illegally cross the border in the first eight months of 2026, compared with 12,000 for the whole of last year.
On some days, border guards record more than 100 attempts to cross the 173-kilometre-long fenced border.
