InfoMigrants

Estonian authorities have detained 388 foreign nationals since July following irregular entries from Belarus, with 258 people held in Tallinn and 148 transferred to Latvia.

Estonia’s Police and Border Guard Board (PPA) has detained 388 foreign nationals since July after they entered the country without a legal basis following border crossings from Belarus, according to Estonia's public broadcaster ERR. The PPA says recent detentions have taken place in Tallinn.

As of Tuesday, 258 people were being held at a detention center in Tallinn, while 148 had been handed over to Latvia, ERR reported. The PPA says each handover requires verified information about a person’s route, origin and intentions, as well as coordination between Estonian and Latvian authorities.

“Each handover is essentially a logistical operation,” said Indrek Aru, head of the border guard bureau at the PPA’s Northern Prefecture told ERR. “The success of which requires verified information about the foreign nationals’ routes, origins and intentions, as well as agreements between the authorities of both countries.”

Increase in detentions

The number of detentions is substantially higher than in 2025. Interior Minister Igor Taro said 39 people were apprehended in Estonia last year for irregular transit after crossing the Latvia-Belarus border. In contrast, by 20 October this year, the figure was 406.

Taro said Estonia’s contingency plans were designed for a larger number of arrivals and that the PPA still retained capacity to respond. He said nearly 50 patrols were handling migration-related tasks daily and that officers had worked more than 8,000 hours of overtime.

Estonia has received 32 million euros in EU funding for drone surveillance along its eastern border. Taro said the number of attempted crossings prevented at the Latvia-Belarus border had fallen from 340 to 122 over three weeks.

Estonian police detaining suspects linked to organizing irregular migration | Photo: Estonian Police and Border Guard Board

According to the PPA, 15 people are suspected of organizing irregular migration. In early October, Estonian police detained six people on suspicion of organizing or facilitating irregular transport. The PPA has not publicly identified the suspects or described the evidence in detail and the allegations have not been tested in court.

The PPA has also reported 50 criminal investigations linked to the alleged facilitation of irregular crossings. Investigators have alleged that networks coordinated routes through Belarus and the Baltic states towards destinations in western Europe. However, these allegations remain subject to investigation.

Regional border tensions

Estonia’s increase in detentions follows heightened activity on the European Union’s eastern border. Latvia and Lithuania have reported a growing number of irregular crossings from Belarus, including through hidden tunnels. Latvian authorities said they had discovered tunnels used by dozens of people, while Lithuanian border guards reported 12 passages since the beginning of the year.

A tunnel used by migrants was discovered on the Lativa-Belarus border | Photo: Latvia's State Border Guard Service

Latvia has also recorded more than 60 incidents of damage to border infrastructure in 2026, including electrical distribution cabinets and surveillance cameras, compared with 23 in 2025. Latvian prosecutors have said there are reasonable grounds to suspect that Belarusian border officials were involved in organizing irregular crossings and infrastructure damage. Belarusian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenko has rejected the accusation.

Latvia’s prosecutor Andris Aleksejevs said migrants who had not paid for crossing were allegedly pressured or threatened into damaging Latvian border infrastructure. These claims are based on an ongoing criminal investigation.

Claims to be minors

A significant number of those detained in Estonia claim to be under 18, placing additional pressure on child-protection services. According to the PPA, almost half of the foreign nationals detained in July and August said they were minors, although it said many later "confirmed they were adults."

By 7 October, a multidisciplinary panel had interviewed 47 people and confirmed two as minors, aged approximately 16 to 18. Two further cases required medical age assessment.

A police raid on suspected irregular migrants in Estonia's capital Tallinn in July | Photo: ERR

Under Estonian and EU law, those claiming to be unaccompanied minors cannot be processed through standard detention or immediate removal procedures. They must receive temporary legal representation and be placed under municipal child-protection care while their age and protection claims are assessed.

InfoMigrants previously reported that Rae Municipality, near Tallinn, has asked the state for additional support. Mayor Gerli Lehe said each claim takes about a day and a half to process, requiring child-protection staff to attend interviews, prepare court documentation and arrange accommodation.

The UNHCR’s local representative, Olga Sõtnik, said the best interests of the child must be a primary consideration throughout age-assessment, asylum and migration procedures. She added that unaccompanied children should not be accommodated with adults or detained for immigration-related reasons.

Medical care in detention facility

Some people held at the Tallinn detention center have sought medical attention for cold-like symptoms and skin rashes, ERR reported. People with high fevers have been taken to West Tallinn Central Hospital, which provides healthcare to the center. One person remained in hospital as of Tuesday and was expected to return to the detention center in the coming days, according to the PPA.

The hospital does not provide the detention facility with detailed information about tests or diagnoses, citing personal-data protection. Aru said staff receive information needed to manage potential health risks, including through isolation or quarantine.

Questions over legal status of detainees

The situation in Estonia forms part of a wider increase in irregular crossings and border incidents along the EU’s eastern external border. But the publicly available information does not set out the legal status of everyone detained, whether they have sought international protection or the individual assessments carried out before transfer to Latvia.

It also does not say how many people remain subject to age-dispute procedures or what safeguards apply to those assessed as minors. Questions remain over access to interpreters and asylum information, the procedure for assessing age-dispute claims, and the legal safeguards and review mechanisms applicable to each return to Latvia.