Boatload of Kurdish, Afghan Refugees Will Be Returned to Latvia
About 150 Kurdish and Afghan refugees will be returned to Latvia after their boat ran aground on the way to Sweden.
The boat was heading from Latvia to Sweden when it ran aground Saturday near Saaremaa Island off the coast of Estonia, a former Soviet republic, the Itar-Tass news agency reported Sunday.
The borders of the former Soviet Union remain porous three years after the Communist empire’s collapse. Many refugees from Asia, Africa and the Middle East illegally enter the former republics in hopes of later making it to the West.
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