Estonia is sending a border guard unit to the Latvia-Belarus border again for two months, where illegal migration pressure is currently the highest. According to Veiko Kommusaar, deputy director general of the Police and Border Guard Board responsible for border guard operations, helping neighboring countries is nothing new for Estonia.

"Indeed, our next rotation will head to Latvia on Monday morning," Kommusaar told Vikerraadio.

"Today, the center of the entire migration pressure is on the Latvian route, and in addition to us, colleagues from Finland and Lithuania are also helping their Latvian counterparts. This is being done so that we have a strong European Union external border and can keep threats outside. Our forecast is that there is no end in sight to this situation at the moment," Kommusaar said.

Although the main pressure is directed toward Latvia, migrants who have entered countries illegally have also reached Estonia. Over the past two weeks, 81 people who arrived illegally via Belarus have been detained in Estonia, with most of them originating from African countries, the PPA deputy chief said.

"They are being organized from here through intermediaries to continue on to other countries," Kommusaar explained. "This week, the aim is to hand over the first detainees to Latvia. The reason is quite simple: while we are helping our Latvian colleagues at the external border as much as we can, they already have established channels for returning these people to the places where they began their journeys."

In addition to dealing with people who have crossed the border illegally, the Police and Border Guard Board is also actively working to catch human traffickers.

"We are focusing very strongly on apprehending intermediaries who earn organized criminal profits from these people's routes of movement — for example, three such people were taken into custody last week," Kommusaar said.

"Why is our route currently standing out and why are alternative routes being sought from here? The reason is that over the years, additional border control and compensatory measures have been introduced between European Union member states and the net has become tighter. This tight net should actually be applied along the entire EU external border so that we can continue to move safely and securely within the Schengen area," the official said.

No cause for concern

Following an incident in Nõmme, where residents noticed a group of unfamiliar people in an apartment building, questions have been raised about public feelings of safety. Kommusaar stressed that there is no reason for concern, but authorities are grateful for any information provided by residents.

"There is certainly no reason for panic today and we are very grateful to people who report suspicious movements to us," he said. "Moving around in groups of dozens of people is not normal and rather indicates that these individuals may not have all their documents in order. They have arrived here via routes that are not legal. Residents certainly do not need to panic because of individual people," Kommusaar said.

Asked whether migration pressure could at some point be directed straight toward the Estonian-Russian border, Kommusaar said this was a real threat.

"A few years ago, similar attempts to cross the border were also made at our border crossing points, as happened in Finland. There have been no such attempts since then, but the threat is real and does exist," Kommusaar noted.

"We know they have both technical support capabilities and a sufficient number of people to organize similar operations in the future either on our borders or on those of our northern neighbors. At the moment, we believe this is unlikely to happen in the near future. However, situations can change quite quickly — if large numbers of people can no longer cross from one area, organizers will undoubtedly look for alternative options. To date, such situations have been supported by Belarus and previously also by our eastern neighbor Russia and they are certainly not ruled out for us and could very likely occur," Kommusaar explained.

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