Finland to close all but one border crossing with Russia amid migrant crisis

The EU’s border and coast guard agency Frontex said on Thursday it will send more officers and other staff to Finland next week as the Nordic nation seeks to limit the number of asylum seekers coming via Russia.

Helsinki has accused Moscow of funnelling migrants to the border from nations such as Yemen, Afghanistan, Kenya, Morocco, Pakistan, Somalia and Syria, a charge the Kremlin has denied.

Finland on Wednesday said it would close all but the northernmost crossing point on its 1,340km border with Russia, leaving open only a remote Arctic route.

Frontex in a statement on Thursday said it would deploy 50 border guard officers and other staff to Finland along with equipment such as patrol cars, to bolster control activities. Finland earlier this week said it had asked for 60 Frontex officers on top of 10 already stationed in the country.

Frontex said it would send the first group of staff on November 29th, including border surveillance officers, support for registering migrants, document experts and interpreters. The fundamental rights “of all people” would be respected and upheld, it said.

“The agency is acutely aware of the humanitarian aspect of this scenario, especially considering the harsh weather conditions and the unpreparedness of the people arriving at the Finnish border,” it added.

Since the beginning of November, more than 600 people without valid travel documents to the European Union have come to Finland via Russia, prompting Helsinki to shut several crossings.

“The government has today decided to close more border stations,” Finnish prime minister Petteri Orpo told a press conference on Wednesday.

Earlier on the same day, Estonia accused Russia of involvement in “a hybrid attack operation” to bring migrants to its border, after 75 people – mostly from Somalia and Syria – attempted to enter from Russia in the space of several days.

The Baltic country said it had prepared to close border crossings if migration pressure from Russia rose and to deal with migrants if they tried to enter outside official crossings.

The Finnish border guard said on Wednesday that unauthorised entries continued at crossing points with Russia and had moved further north along the border to Vartius and Salla, two frontier stations that still accepted asylum applications.

Finland said Russia was letting migrants through those two crossing points by foot despite an agreement that they could only cross by car. “There are growing signs that the situation is worsening on the eastern border,” Mr Orpo said.

Finland will shut three of the four remaining border crossing points from midnight on Friday, leaving only the Raja-Jooseppi crossing in the Arctic open. All other crossings will be shut until December 23rd, including for Finns wanting to enter Russia.

“Raja-Jooseppi is the northernmost [border crossing] and it requires a real effort to get there,” Mr Orpo said.

The government would seek to amend legislation that prevented it from closing the entire border, he added.

Finland’s president, Sauli Niinisto, said on Monday that repatriating people who did not meet the criteria for asylum had become impossible. He called for an EU-wide solution to stop uncontrollable entry to Europe’s passport-free Schengen area.

The Kremlin said on Monday it had lodged a formal protest over Finland’s partial border closure, saying the decision reflected an anti-Russian stance.

In 2021, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia accused Moscow’s close ally Belarus of artificially creating a migrant crisis on their borders by flying in people from the Middle East and Africa and attempting to push them across the frontier – an accusation Belarus repeatedly denied. – Reuters

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