Overview
- Latvian border guards discovered a second hidden tunnel about 20 metres from the Belarus frontier after they apprehended 28 migrants near Kraslava on Friday.
- Authorities said the passage was camouflaged with moss and matched other small tunnels previously found that are roughly ten metres long.
- Latvia has kept Operation Werwolf in place and increased drone, radar and interagency patrols to detect underground and other irregular entry routes.
- An internal Frontex analysis reported by NDR and WDR alleges Belarusian state actors may have supported construction of such tunnels but the documents have not been fully published or publicly verified.
- Poland and Lithuania have reported similar subterranean routes from Belarus in recent years, and Latvia returned the 28 migrants, a move that raises legal and humanitarian questions for EU border policy.