In Estonia, more than 50 detained migrants have claimed to be minors

Since July 21, Estonian police have detained 109 foreigners who, according to law enforcement officials, illegally crossed the border between Belarus and Latvia. More than 50 of them claimed to be unaccompanied minors, ERR News reports, citing Indrek Aru, head of the Northern Prefecture Border Bureau.

According to Aru, there are 119 foreign nationals currently in detention centers in Estonia. All 109 individuals detained since July 21 were found in Tallinn; no illegal migrants have been detected in other parts of the country so far. Nineteen migrants were transferred to Latvia last week in accordance with an agreement between Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

There are 30 people at the detention center in the municipality of Rae who are believed to be unaccompanied minors. According to Indrek Juss, a specialist with the Social Insurance Department, they are believed to be from Ethiopia and Eritrea, and most of them are over 16 years old. Their native language is Tigrinya, so communication takes place with the help of two interpreters—first from Tigrinya to English, and then to Estonian.

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Aru stated that, according to the police, fewer than ten of those detained may actually be minors. He said that some people have changed their statements regarding their age, and the police consider most of those who identified themselves as unaccompanied minors to be adults.

An expert commission is working to determine their ages; the commission includes an expert from the police and border guard service, a representative of local government, a representative of the Social Insurance Department, a psychologist, and a medical professional. The first interviews have already been conducted, but no final conclusions have been reached yet: the commission’s assessments must be documented. If a person is recognized as an unaccompanied minor, a legal representative must be appointed from among local government officials.