More migrants caught in Tallinn, 1 foreigner found dead in apartment
A 21-year-old man from Pakistan was confirmed dead by police at an apartment in Tallinn on Saturday. Eight illegal migrants who said they had traveled from Latvia to Estonia were also found in the same location.
At around 4 p.m. on Saturday, foreign nationals staying in an apartment on Tehnika tänav called an ambulance for one of their companions. Paramedics who arrived at the scene confirmed the death of a 21-year-old man of Pakistani origin and informed the police. Officers responding to the scene found no external signs of violence on the body.
Inna Toater, operations manager at the North Prefecture, said there were eight other foreign nationals in the apartment, and checks revealed that they were staying in Estonia illegally.
"According to preliminary information, the men arrived in Estonia today from Latvia. According to the men themselves, they were involved in a traffic accident in Latvia last night, when the vehicle transporting them veered off the road. We are currently establishing how the men reached Estonia and under what circumstances one of them died," she said.
Toater said the health of the other foreign nationals in the apartment was also checked.
"Three men were taken to hospital for further medical examinations, while the remaining five were taken to a detention center," she explained.
The body of the 21-year-old man was sent for an autopsy to determine the cause of death. Police are continuing to investigate the exact circumstances of the incident.
According to preliminary information, the eight foreign nationals are from Afghanistan, Morocco and Ethiopia.
Thousands of migrants have crossed the Belarusian-Latvian border into the European Union without the correct documentation this year in what officials say is a "hybrid attack" orchestrated by the regime in Minsk.
The migrants, mostly from Africa and the Middle East, then travel on to other countries in western or northern Europe, using Estonia as a transit country. However, more than 400 people have been caught in Estonia this year after Poland and Germany boosted security checks on their borders, and smugglers changed their routes.
When apprehended, the migrants are usually returned to Latvia under EU rules.
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Editor: Helen Wright, Johanna Alvin
