Pakosta (Eesti 200) sent the Government Office and the Riigikogu Legal Affairs Committee a proposal to amend a bill changing the Penal Code that is currently awaiting its second reading. The ministry wants to significantly toughen penalties for illegally transporting foreign nationals across the state border, or migrant smuggling.

Under the bill, the maximum prison sentence for organizing a standard illegal border crossing would be increased to five years, while offenses committed under aggravating circumstances would be punishable by one to seven years in prison.

Aggravating circumstances would include committing the offense in a life-threatening manner, repeatedly or involving two or more people. The maximum penalty under the relevant section would also be increased from one year to three years in prison.

The Ministry of Justice cited hybrid attacks originating in neighboring countries and a sharp rise in the number of migrants and smugglers in Estonia as reasons for the changes.

"Countries near Estonia have recently come under hybrid attack, with hostile neighboring countries facilitating attempts by large numbers of migrants from third countries to cross state borders. In connection with this, there has also been a noticeable increase in the number of illegal border crossers arriving in Estonia. Illegal border crossers are often assisted by criminals whom migrants pay to smuggle them into the European Union and arrange their illegal border crossings," Pakosta said in the proposal.

While 11 such crimes were registered in Estonia last year, 26 were registered in the first eight months of this year. According to the Police and Border Guard Board (PPA), 27 people who were in Estonia illegally were caught while traveling onward within the Schengen Area in 2025, compared with 181 in the first eight months of this year.

Pakosta said that both organizing illegal border crossings and facilitating illegal stays in Estonia are serious crimes that currently carry relatively lenient penalties. Existing law does not even allow authorities to take into account whether an offense is a repeat violation or involves bringing several migrants into the country at once for greater financial gain.

She added that the recent rise in the number of such criminal incidents, as well as the apparent lack of difficulty criminal networks face in recruiting accomplices, shows that the risk of punishment is not sufficiently deterrent.

"In other words, the penalties introduced into the existing law in 2015 no longer reflect the current situation, are not sufficiently deterrent and must therefore be increased. In addition, to deter repeat offenders, the maximum possible penalty for such offenses must also be increased so that repeatedly transporting foreign nationals illegally across the border or transporting several foreign nationals illegally across the border becomes a first-degree criminal offense," Pakosta wrote in the proposal.

Both the Ministry of the Interior and the Prosecutor's Office have said tougher penalties are necessary, she noted.

Pakosta also wants to add a provision to the bill under which damaging an object of importance to national defense would be punishable by one to eight years in prison.

Under the proposal, objects of importance to national defense would include buildings, structures, vehicles, equipment or other property used for activities essential to carrying out crisis-related duties by the Estonian Defense Forces, the Estonian Defense League (Kaitseliit), a security agency, a rescue agency, the Police and Border Guard Board or a defense industry company.

As an example, Pakosta cited the fire in Tallinn in August this year at a building used by defense industry company Milrem Robotics.

--

Follow ERR News on Facebook and X and never miss an update!