Over the past week, the police detained many foreigners who entered Estonia illegally. The arrests took place both in Tallinn and at the Latvian border. Local people and police data helped locate them.
Five of these 46 immigrants were apprehended in Pärnu County. Pärnu police and Finnish border guards inspected a car driven by a 54-year-old Romanian man. The Finnish border guard noticed that there were other people in the car.
„At first, it seemed that only the driver was in the car. But a colleague saw a hand sticking out from among the luggage. During further inspection, we found five foreigners in the car,“ said Margo Peters, head of the border and migration surveillance department.
It turned out that in addition to the Romanian men, there were five people of South Asian origin in the car. They came to Estonia illegally via Latvia from Belarus.
The illegal immigrants are now in the Tallinn detention center. The Romanian citizen has been arrested with court permission. A criminal case has been initiated against him.
„We are investigating exactly how the foreigners reached Estonia. Preliminary data suggests they came to Latvia from a camp in Belarus. The Romanian citizen took them into the car and told them to keep their heads down. This shows that he knew he was doing something illegal,“ said prosecutor Keili Tiirik.
This year, about 50 criminal cases have been initiated for illegal immigration. Five people are in custody. Since July, the police have detained 187 foreigners who entered Estonia illegally. 72 people have been handed over to Latvia.