Baltic States – CIS, Estonia, Latvia, Legislation, Russia, Transport

The minister did not agree to the claim that ''illegal border crossers are walking all over Latvia's border undisturbed'', but added that ''Latvia cannot control every single centimeter of its border''.

He also said that the government has supported the creation of a special border-zone on the border with Russia all throughout the 270-km border. ''At the same time, we have also discussed the possibility of building fences in some areas bordering Russia,'' the minister emphasized.

However, the minister said that if the fences are not built constructed correctly, they will not be able to stop the flow of illegal immigrants.

''First of all, we need to establish a wide enough border-zone, so that border guards do not have to walk through a jungle to reach the border and are capable of reacting in accordance with the situation. We must also equip the border with the necessary technologies, like, for example, sensors. This would reduce the number of persons trying to cross the border illegally to a minimum,'' he said.

Kozlovskis also admitted that due to the political situation in Russia, practical cooperation between the State Border Guard and Russia's border service has worsened a bit.

As reported, the Estonian Police and State Border Guard are planning to build a boundary fence that is 2.5 meter high on a little more than 100 kilometers of land border between Estonia and Russia, the Estonian newspaper Postimees reported earlier this week.

The boundary fence would run without gaps from Varska to the Koidula border-crossing point. On swamp areas there would be no fence, as there the border line would only consist of border posts and patrolling tracks.

The estimated cost of the construction of the fence in Estonia's eastern border will amount to approximately EUR 71 million.