"Last week, I personally witnessed in Latvia that the situation at the Latvian-Belarusian border remains challenging. Since the current mission was supposed to conclude this week, we decided to extend the Estonian auxiliary mission for four weeks and will send additional rotations this year to assist our southern neighbors," said Estonian Minister of the Interior Igor Taro. "Every illegal migrant detained or sent back at the external border is one less problem inside our country. Assisting Latvia in protecting the external border is part of collective defense. By acting together and decisively, we send a clear signal: this is not a place to come to, and illegal border crossing does not guarantee the opportunity to stay in Europe. We will catch illegal migrants and send them back," the minister added.
