Estonia detains 13 undocumented migrants and Ukrainian driver transporting six more
On September 24, Estonian police detained 13 undocumented foreigners in Tallinn and Pärnu County, while customs officers stopped a van on the Tallinn–Pärnu–Ikla highway carrying six more migrants, driven by a Ukrainian citizen.
Estonia's Police and Border Guard Board reported that on September 24 officers detained three small groups of undocumented migrants — 13 people in total — in various parts of Tallinn and at the port. The migrants said they had reached Estonia via Belarus and Latvia and came mainly from Mali, Burundi, Somalia, Ethiopia and Nepal.
That same evening, mobile customs control officers from the Tax and Customs Board stopped a van bearing Latvian license plates on the Tallinn–Pärnu–Ikla highway. Six undocumented migrants were found in the vehicle's cargo compartment. They said they had entered the Schengen area via the Belarus-Latvia border. The van was driven by a Ukrainian citizen.
Dangerous conditions
Margo Peters, head of the Western Prefecture's border and migration surveillance bureau, said what was found in the van's cargo hold clearly showed how smugglers sell people a fragile hope for a better future while actually charging large sums for a dangerous and degrading journey. The men had been in a cold, closed cargo compartment, soaked through and without any safety measures. According to Peters, those who organize illegal migration are not concerned with people's welfare, only with the profit they can make.
Prosecutor Keili Tiirik noted that foreigners who illegally transport people across Estonia's border face imprisonment. She stressed that those involved in such transport endanger people's wellbeing and health for money and, through their actions, support international organized crime. She confirmed that a request had been submitted to the court to place the Ukrainian citizen detained on September 24 in pretrial custody.
The circumstances of entry for all detained foreigners are still being clarified, and police are working to establish the migrants' route into Estonia and any possible links to human smuggling. The Tallinn detention center currently holds 154 foreigners. Since July 2026, 83 foreigners have been transferred to Latvia.
