WARSAW: They might look like lost tourists — unkempt and overloaded with gear — or hikers with military haircuts, survival gear and no clue how to behave in the woods.

But Latvia’s intelligence agency said Thursday that they might actually be Russian saboteurs and spies.

In its annual report, Latvia’s Defense Intelligence and Security Service, known by Latvian acronym MIDD, offered advice on how to identify possible reconnaissance and sabotage operatives.

It’s an increasingly relevant concern given regional tensions and a string of arson and other acts of sabotage, which Western governments blame on Russia — allegations that Moscow has repeatedly denied.

The list of telltale signs is striking: slovenly appearance, mismatched military or sportswear, and a knack for asking locals suspicious questions. According to the security service, such groups may linger near military or critical infrastructure sites, pose as humanitarian workers or stay in remote areas without showing any interest in nature.

Some may carry specialized medical kits, maps or radios — items better suited for clandestine operations than camping trips.

The Latvian guidance comes as countries across the region, including new NATO members Sweden and Finland, have been issuing booklets with advice on how to survive war or a natural disaster.

Nearby Poland is now preparing its guidelines, while Norway recently published a book with advice on how to survive for one week.

“We live in an increasingly turbulent world,” it says. “Even though in Norway most things generally function as they normally would, we must remain aware that extreme weather, pandemics, accidents, sabotage — and in the worst case acts of war — can impact us.”

MIDD, one of Latvia’s three security services, alongside the State Security Service and the Constitution Protection Bureau, warned that Russian saboteurs might also attempt to incite unrest or assassinate “socially significant individuals.”

Their activities might also be focused on “studying the position of the target country’s society and inciting unrest directed against the existing government.”

The agency cautioned that appearances can deceive.

“The Ukrainian experience shows that Russian special services are able to adapt,” the report says. Not all spies will fit the mold, and suspicions must be judged in context.

It also warns that if a sabotage group is spotted, leave the James Bond heroics to the professionals.

“If you do think you might have spotted a sabotage group on Latvian soil, MIDD does not recommend tackling them yourself,” it said. “Instead report your suspicions to the State Police, special services, or the nearest armed forces unit.”

TIRANA: The UK is in talks with different countries about setting up “return hubs” for failed asylum seekers, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Thursday on a visit to Albania seeking to bring down immigration.

The UK leader is under pressure to reduce immigration and cut the number of irregular migrants arriving on UK shores, many in small boats, amid the rising popularity of the hard-right, anti-immigrant Reform Party.

“We are in talks with a number of countries about return hubs,” Starmer told a joint news conference with his newly reelected Albanian counterpart Edi Rama.

Starmer declined to explain how the hubs would work in practice or say with which countries he was in talks.

But he said his new Labour government had been left a “mess” by the previous Conservative leadership, which he said had failed to process asylum claims.

The prime minister’s official spokesman said: “This will basically apply to people who have exhausted all legal routes to remain in the UK but are attempting to stall, using various tactics — whether it’s losing their paperwork or using other tactics to frustrate their removal.”

Last July, Starmer’s Labour government abandoned a scheme put in place by the Conservatives to deport undocumented migrants to Rwanda.

Rama said hosting a new UK return hub in Albania was not on the table, adding that an earlier deal with Italy had been a “one-off.”

The scheme by Italy for Italian-run facilities to process migrants to be based in Albania is currently bogged down in the courts.

“The model that we’ve brought to Albania in cooperation with Italy ... is a model that takes its time to be tested,” said Rama.

“If it works, it can be replicated, but not in Albania, in other countries of the region.”

In March, the European Commission unveiled a planned reform of the 27-nation bloc’s return system, opening the way for member states to set up migrant return centers outside the EU.

Earlier this week Starmer unveiled tough new immigration policies that included cutting the number of overseas care workers, doubling the length of time before migrants can qualify for settlement in the country and new powers to deport foreign criminals.

The announcement was widely seen as an attempt to fend off rising support for anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage’s hard-right Reform UK party.

Labour vowed in its general election manifesto last year to significantly reduce net migration, which stood at 728,000 in the 12 months to last June.

It peaked at 906,000 in 2023 after averaging 200,000 for most of the 2010s.

In addition to high levels of legal migration, the UK has also seen unprecedented numbers of irregular migrants. And the numbers of asylum seekers has tripled to 84,200 in 2024, compared to 27,500 between 2010 and 2011.

More than 12,500 migrants have made the perilous Channel crossing so far this year, according to an AFP tally based on figures from the UK’s interior ministry.

Under a deal between the previous Conservative government and Tirana in 2022, Albanians arriving in the UK on small boats across the Channel can be sent back immediately.

Starmer’s Downing Street office said in a statement there had been a 95 percent reduction in Albanian small boat arrivals in the last three years, while the number of Albanians returned to the country had doubled in the past two years.

Some 5,294 Albanians were sent back in 2024, more than double the 2,035 Albanian nationals returned two years earlier.

Starmer also announced an expansion of the Joint Migration Taskforce in the Western Balkans, set up with Albania and Kosovo, to include North Macedonia and Montenegro.

The expansion would allow greater intelligence sharing to intercept smuggling gangs and deploy UK funded drones to snare gangsters funnelling migrants through the Western Balkans corridor to the UK.

Rama has vowed to integrate the Balkan nation into the European Union, and was also set to meet EU chiefs Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa on Thursday in Tirana.