Lithuania steps up border monitoring with Latvia over irregular migration surge

Lithuania is intensifying monitoring along its border with Latvia in response to a sharp rise in irregular secondary migration, the interior ministry announced on Friday.

The measures will involve more intensive use of surveillance technology and increased patrolling along internal border zones, transport hubs, passenger routes, airports and seaports, based on available intelligence and risk assessments.

The State Border Guard Service, police, Public Security Service and Customs Department will all participate, with operations coordinated by Interior Minister Vladislavas Kondratovičius in his capacity as head of operations for the migrant influx emergency.

The ministry stressed that the measures do not constitute a restoration of internal border controls and will be implemented in full compliance with EU law, preserving free movement within the Schengen area – the passport-free travel zone that covers most of the European Union.

Last year, 1,288 irregular migrants transported from Latvia or travelling independently through that route were detained – nearly two and a half times the 540 recorded in 2024.

In the first six months of this year alone, detentions on what officials call the 'Latvian route' have already matched the total for the whole of 2025.

Since the irregular migration crisis began in 2021, when Belarus began facilitating the movement of migrants towards EU borders in what Western governments described as a deliberate hybrid warfare tactic by President Alexander Lukashenko, more than 25,000 attempts to cross into Lithuania irregularly from Belarus have been recorded.

The ministry said the overall situation on the Belarusian border remains stable, but that the flow via Latvia is growing.

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