Finland to close border crossings with Russia over migrant influx

Finland is a Nordic nation that borders Russia by 1,340 kilometres (830 miles). Since August, more people have been allowed to enter the country without the required paperwork, mostly Middle Eastern and African nationals without a visa, according to Finland’s border guard.

“Today the government has made the decision to close the Vaalimaa, Nuijamaa, Imatra and Niirala border crossing points on the land border between Finland and Russia,” Interior Minister Mari Rantanen told reporters.

In reaction to Finland’s membership in NATO earlier this year, Prime Minister Petteri Orpo charged that Russia was purposefully trying to undermine the country.

He stated that there were “various signs that entering Finland is being aided and encouraged, organised” .

“We have been prepared for different kinds of actions, malice, by Russia, and therefore this situation doesn’t come as a surprise,” Orpo said.

When Finland decided to join NATO in April, Moscow declared that this was a “assault on our security” and threatened to take “countermeasures… in tactical and strategic terms”.

According to the border guard’s statement on Thursday, 280 asylum applicants have crossed the border since September.

However, Rantanen declared, “The numbers aren’t a big deal.”

“This is not a normal question about asylum politics. This is a case of us having indications and information that people are being machinated into Finland,” Rantanen said.

The flood of migrants “poses a serious threat to national security… burdening the operations of the authorities in the eastern border area,” according to Markku Hassinen, deputy chief of the Finnish border guard.

The four crossing points in the most populous southern regions are the ones that will close; the four crossing points in the more northern rural areas will remain open.

Two of the four crossing locations that remain open will be the central location for asylum applications when the crossing points close at midnight on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, February 18, 2024.

(With agency inputs)