Finland has decided to shut down half of its crossing points on the border with Russia due to increasing pressure from illegal immigrants, as announced by Finnish Minister of the Interior Mari Rantanen on Thursday, the 16th of November.
Vaalimaa, Nuijamaa, Imatra and Niirala border crossing points will be shut down at 00:00 on the night to Saturday.
After that international protection applications will have to be submitted to northern border crossing points Vartius, Salla, Kuusamo and Raja-Jooseppi, which will remain open. Restrictions will remain in force until the 18th of February 2024.
The Finnish minister said this decision was made based on information and conclusions from border guards and other agencies. There are clear indications that foreign authorities played a part in illegal migrants’ arrival.
She said that Finland will use various channels and languages to reach out to those who want to enter the country and those helping them with a notification that borders are closed and illegal entry is prohibited.
Deputy Chief of Finnish State Border Guard Markku Hassinen said the aforementioned control points will be physically closed –
this means no traffic will be allowed through them.
Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said the government wants to ensure a serious response to the situation on the border. He said the practice of Russian border guards has changed and they have started letting people over the border without appropriate documents.
Finnish and Russian border authorities previously cooperated for years in efforts to prevent illegal border-crossing. However, now Russia has a different policy and allows illegal migrants to travel to Finland unhindered even though those people have no valid travel documents, said Rantanen.
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