Opposition leaders reject full border controls for now

Estonia should not introduce full border controls at present because of increased migration pressure from the south, the leaders of the opposition Centre Party and Isamaa told ERR.

Centre Party leader Mihhail Kõlvart said he trusted the Police and Border Guard Board’s assessment that such measures were not currently necessary. However, he said Estonia should be ready to make the decision if the situation escalates.

Kõlvart added that his comments last Saturday had referred to the need for Italy to temporarily restore border controls. In his view, Italy had grounds to take that step.

Isamaa leader Urmas Reinsalu said Estonia should be prepared to introduce full controls at its land border if the flow of migration towards the country grows. He said the measure would also send a signal to the organisers and people operationally implementing the migration pressure that no migration corridor towards Estonia was available.

Reinsalu said publicly available information suggested that the situation was stabilising. He considered the current additional measures, including more frequent patrols, checks at airports and ports, and other steps, appropriate. If the pressure increases, Estonia should be ready to introduce further measures, including land border controls, he said.

Border Guard Board lacks resources

Veiko Kommusaar, deputy director general of the Police and Border Guard Board responsible for border guard operations, said restoring temporary controls within the Schengen area would not fundamentally resolve pressure at the European Union’s external border.

He said resources used to restore controls at internal borders would not help address pressure on the EU’s external borders. The first choice should be to help neighbouring countries resolve the problem there, he said, warning that otherwise the pressure could move along the border to another country.

Restoring full border controls would cost Estonia more than seven million euros a month, Kommusaar said. The Police and Border Guard Board also lacks the staff needed to operate the controls. Personnel would have to be provided together with other agencies, the Defence Forces and the Defence League, he said.

Closing only Estonia’s southern border would cost slightly more than three million euros a month, according to Kommusaar.

In recent weeks, Estonia has become a destination for irregular migrants who began their journey in Belarus and travelled through Latvia. Over the past two weeks, 81 people who had entered Estonia illegally via Belarus have been detained. Most were from African countries.

Migration pressure in Europe increased more broadly after an incident on Friday in which 60,000 migrants from Morocco forced their way into Ceuta, an enclave in North Africa. Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on Friday that Italy had suspended the Schengen agreement with Spain following the influx of migrants into the enclave. The Estonian government does not support ending the Schengen arrangement with Spain.