Latvia, closing the border with Belarus, seeks to receive extra-financing from European structures. This was stated by the head of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry Maxim Ryzhenkov.
"The bottom line, as always, is to get extra financing from European structures. This is something that Poland and Lithuania have already passed. Now Latvians have also decided to show the peak of activity at the border, that it is they who are holding back hordes of migrants. In order to apply to the European Union and pump taxpayers' money out of it for themselves," he said.
Maxim Ryzhenkov also drew attention to what is happening on the borders of the European Union from Africa: thousands of migrants from Morocco have recently arrived in Spain. Illegal migrants from Africa and the Middle East enter other EU countries, and then many of them follow to the UK.
"Even representatives of the European Union say that the topic of illegal migration through the Belarusian territory is so exaggerated. Moreover, there are no Belarusians among these migrants, that is, we are not a source of illegal migration," the minister noted.
According to him, the topic of illegal migration on the Belarusian border is also raised by some Latvian politicians, thereby wanting to score political points. However, the Latvian public and other political forces quickly reacted to their proposals to close the border with Belarus.
"It was a pen test — to see what would come of it. When it turned out that this measure was unpopular neither in society nor among the political elites in Latvia itself, they moved away from it," Ryzhenkov added.
Let us remind you that at the end of July Latvia closed the last working crossing on the border with Belarus for several days. Riga wanted to completely stop transport links with the neighboring republic, but this caused outrage in society. As a result, the checkpoint was reopened.