The European Union must strengthen external borders to counter “weaponized migration,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday.
The bloc has faced years of illegal immigration, some of which is believed to have been facilitated by Belarus and Russia, she said.
Von der Leyen told the European Council that in response to threats to external borders, the Commission would propose a European Emergency Response Framework, which will be presented at the end of the year.
“We have seen how Russia and Belarus have weaponized migration,” Von der Leyen said. “State and non-state actors are deliberately engineering mass movements of people.
“The goal is clear: to overwhelm authorities, spread fear, and divide us.”
The European Commission president made the remarks after member states in Eastern Europe began to experience increased illegal immigration flows from the Middle East and Africa.
Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland have blamed Belarus and its ally, Russia, for orchestrating the migrants flows across their borders to destabilize countries on NATO’s eastern flank—an allegation Minsk and Moscow deny.
Latvia experienced migrant incursions over the summer, with Latvian soldiers using tear gas and firing a warning shot to stop illegal immigrants from trying to enter from Belarus.
The Latvian army said in a July 22 post on X that while providing support to the State Border Guard, they had detected at least five people attempting to cross illegally from Belarus.
They said that upon seeing members of the military, the migrants acted aggressively and threw wooden logs at the soldiers, which triggered the defensive action from the army.
“This is yet another example of illegal migration being used as a hybrid warfare tool and a deliberate provocation against Latvia and other EU and NATO external border states,” the Latvian military said at the time.
It added that the armed forces will “continue to provide support to the State Border Guard along the Latvia–Belarus and Latvia–Russia borders, to jointly respond to the challenges posed by illegal migration and hybrid threats.”
Years of Migrant Incursions
Latvia, which is a member of the EU and NATO, has been experiencing illegal migration on its Belarusian border since 2021 and has accused Minsk and Moscow of flying in migrants from the Middle East and Africa, and pushing them into EU territory.
Similarly, Polish security forces used a water cannon on illegal immigrants trying to enter the bloc via Poland’s border with Belarus in December 2021.
Thousands had gathered at the border in an attempt to enter the EU, which, with its borderless Schengen zone, means visa-free travel to any other part of the bloc.
Poland continued to report migrant incursions years later, including in December 2025 when Polish authorities said more than 180 people crossed into the country through a tunnel hidden in a forest on the border with Belarus.
In August of this year, Latvian authorities said that they had found a tunnel under the border with Belarus.
Latvian Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs said at the time that criminal networks were facilitating the illegal migration, bringing them into the Schengen zone so migrants can travel elsewhere in the bloc.
Lithuania said in July it had also found a tunnel that illegal immigrants were using to enter EU territory from Belarus.
Both Belarus and Russia deny encouraging illegal immigrants to cross the borders.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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