Latvia begins erecting a permanent fence on the border with Belarus

RIGA, Aug. 30 (DPA/EP) –

The Latvian authorities have begun the construction of a permanent fence to replace the current infrastructure on the border with Belarus, which is in turn the external border of the European Union, the Latvian government announced on Tuesday.

The Ministry of the Interior has already confirmed the removal of trees and bushes in 70 percent of the territory that separates Latvia and Belarus, with a view to reinforcing a fence that will measure almost 150 kilometers and will be interspersed with control towers and pedestrian crossings.

Latvia expects to have completed the works in February 2024 and that the infrastructure in general will be completed in June of the same year. With it, he wants to finish applying a surveillance policy that he took to extremes in 2021, after thousands of migrants tried to reach the EU as a measure of pressure from the Alexander Lukashenko regime.