Latvia prevented 246 people from illegally crossing from neighboring Belarus on September 10 -- a 24-hour record, the Latvian Border Guard said on September 11. According to the Border Guard, 472 people tried to cross the EU's external border in the past three days. That brings the total number of attempted illegal border crossings this year to over 7,800, compared to just under 5,300 last year. Along with Poland, Latvia and Lithuania accuse Belarus's longtime ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka of bringing migrants to the EU's external border in an organized way to put pressure on the West.
Latvia Registers Record Number Of Migrants At Border With Belarus
A Latvian Border Guard officer patrols along the fence at the Latvian-Belarus border near Robeznieki in August.