HELSINKI — The authorities in Finland is contemplating whether or not to shut some crossing factors on the nation’s lengthy border with Russia to forestall folks from making an attempt to enter with out correct documentation, the Nordic nation’s inside minister and prime minister stated Tuesday.
Interior Minister Mari Rantanen stated the variety of migrants at Finland‘s southeastern border crossings has risen substantially since August due to what the government suspects is a change in Russia‘s border policy and enforcement.
Finnish and Russian border authorities have for years cooperated in stopping people without the necessary visas or passports before they can attempt to enter either of the two countries. But Russia has started allowing undocumented travelers to access the border zone and enter crossing stations where they can request asylum in Finland, Rantanen said.
“It is clear that these people get help to get to the border. This seems like a very conscious decision,” Prime Minister Petteri Orpo told reporters. “The government’s message is obvious: We should take this severely and safeguard the safety of our border.”
The variety of migrants exhibiting up on the Finland–Russia border to this point has remained small, with 71 arriving final week, Finnish border authorities stated. About half had been from Iraq and the remaining from international locations that included Syria, Yemen, Turkey and Somalia, they stated.
Rantanen was unable to elucidate why Moscow’s border coverage all of a sudden modified.
“Maybe (Russian officers) are irritated by one thing in Finland‘s activities. You have to ask the Russian authorities about that,” she said. “We do hope that Russia changes its policy back as it was before.”
After Russia invaded Ukraine last year, Finland applied to join NATO and became the Western military alliance’s thirty first member in April.
Finnish Defense Minister Antti Häkkänen accused Russia of intentionally ushering migrants towards the border zone as a sort of “hybrid warfare.” Officials in Latvia, Lithuania and Poland have made the identical allegation in opposition to Belarus in recent times.
Häkkänen stated he would inform NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and the European Union in regards to the state of affairs. Finland’s 832-mile border with Russia serves because the EU’s exterior border and NATO’s jap flank.
Thousands of migrants, additionally primarily from the Middle East, tried to cross Finland‘s northernmost border crossing with Russia in 2015-2016.
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Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, contributed to this report.
