The association ‘I want to help refugees’ reported that between October 2023 and October 2025, 11 people who died after crossing the Latvian-Belarusian border were buried in Latvia as unidentified persons. The burials were carried out by local municipalities where the bodies were found, though ongoing maintenance of the graves was not planned.
‘I want to help refugees’ reached agreements with municipalities to care for these burial sites. It has so far installed memorial plaques for nine individuals and regularly cleans the sites, with two additional plaques planned for spring 2026.
On 20 June 2025, the association raised the issue at the Conversation Festival “Lampa” during a discussion titled “Can we bury responsibility? – burials of unidentified border crossers at the border area.” ‘I want to help refugees’ continues to collect data on border fatalities, support families searching for missing relatives, and advocate for a better national cooperation system to handle such cases.