On 23 October Latvia recorded 50 attempts by migrants to cross the border from Belarus in one day

Latvia's State Border Guard recorded 50 attempts by migrants to illegally cross the border from Belarus on 23 October. It is the highest figure since 10 October, when there were 58 such attempts.

Between those dates, the daily figures ranged from 4 (14 October) to 39 (22 October). The month's peak fell on 4 October, when 95 attempts were recorded.

Since the start of October, Latvia has stopped 696 attempts to violate the border from Belarus. Since the start of 2026, according to the border service, there have been just under 12400, which is 12.8% more than over the same period last year. People have been trying to cross the Belarusian-Latvian border for 212 days in a row, since 25 March.

On the Lithuanian section, 92 attempts have been recorded since the start of the month and 1751 since the start of the year. That is 6.1% more than in all of 2025 (1651) and 74.8% more than in all of 2024 (1002).

The Latvian section accounts for 84.7% of all migrant activity recorded on the European Union's border with Belarus over the almost 10 months of the year so far. The Lithuanian section accounts for 12%, the Polish one for 3.3%.

After 34 quiet days, from 16 September to 19 October, Poland reported 8 attempts on 20 October. Lithuania's border guard service recorded 31 attempts on 21 October and 19 on 22 October, by one outlet's count.

In March 2024, the Latvian government introduced an enhanced border security regime in parts of the Ludza, Kraslava, Augšdaugava and Daugavpils municipalities and in Kaunata parish of Rēzekne municipality. By a Cabinet of Ministers decision of 30 June 2026, it has been extended until 31 December 2026. In these areas, police and the army patrol the territory more intensively and are entitled to inspect premises without the owners' permission.

Latvia completed a border fence of almost 145 kilometres in July 2024; work began in September 2022.

The migration crisis on the border between Belarus and the EU countries has been going on since spring 2021. The authorities of neighbouring European states regard it as a "hybrid attack" organised by Minsk and Moscow. Aliaksandr Lukashenka has repeatedly said that Belarusian border guards will not stop migrants because they were supposedly "invited" to the EU, and that the European Union itself is "strangling" Minsk with sanctions.

In 2021, Latvia introduced a state of emergency that ran from 11 August to 10 November. The country also extended enhanced border protection in 2023, when the regime was in force until 10 February 2024.