Photo credit: BBC
Police apprehended eight illegal immigrants in Tallinn’s Mustamae district on Friday. Two men were taken to hospital, while the rest were taken directly to a detention centre.
ERR reports that almost 400 migrants have been detained by the police since July in Estonia after a surge in illegal crossings at the Latvian-Estonian border. Estonia is used as a transit country to reach Scandinavia rather than a final destination. The migrants caught by police are detained and then sent back to Latvia in groups.
On Friday at around 3:30 pm, a citizen informed police that eight dark-skinned men had exited a vehicle on J. Sutiste tee in Mustamae, attracting attention.
After the men got out, the vehicle left the scene and the men began moving around the area.
Silver Hanikat, operations manager of the North Prefecture, said every additional pair of eyes is a great help to police in apprehending illegal immigrants.
According to preliminary information, seven of those detained are from Somalia, and one is from Algeria.
“All detained men were in Estonia illegally and did not have any documents with them,” the operations manager added.
