Belarus–Latvia border
A 173 km border of forests, lakes and the Daugava river in Latvia’s far south-east. Once troubled mainly by cigarette smugglers, it became a front line of the EU’s migration dispute with Belarus after 2021, and Latvia has since fenced almost all of it.
Written from cited sourcesLast checked 30 September 2026Suggest a correction
See it on the globe:Belarus →Latvia →
From smugglers to migrants
The countryside near the village of Silene, in Latvia’s far south-east, is forest and fields. For years its border guards mostly dealt with cigarette and alcohol smuggling. In 2021, as thousands of people tried to enter the EU from Belarus at the Lithuanian, Polish and Latvian borders, Latvian guards laid rolls of barbed wire as a temporary barrier.[2]
According to Latvian Public Media, most of the migrants, from Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and elsewhere, were deliberately sent by Minsk to pressure the EU in retaliation for sanctions. Its guards recorded record numbers in late 2023, after Poland and Lithuania had finished their fences, and almost 14,000 attempts to enter Latvia illegally from Belarus were prevented that year. A two-kilometre zone along the border now needs a special permit.[2]
“You can see here the final permanent fence, but behind it you can see the temporary fence. It is like the first line of security.”[2]
The fence
Latvia completed about 112 km of fence on land in 2023 and the sections along waterways by the end of July 2024, making almost 145 km in all. No fence was built along a 16.7 km stretch of the Daugava river or around Lake Riču, where patrol roads and other infrastructure were planned instead. The whole project cost €125.35 million, including €3.6 million from the EU.[1]
Timeline
More borders
Sources
- [1]Latvian-Belarusian border fence project completed · LSM (Latvian Public Media) · 31 July 2024
- [2]Keeping watch along Latvia’s border with Belarus · LSM (Latvian Public Media) · 20 January 2024
Map geometry from Natural Earth via world-atlas. See credits.