Finland’s government said on Tuesday that Russia has recently been allowing asylum seekers to enter its territory without the necessary travel documents, calling it an “international crime.”
According to the Finnish border service, 91 undocumented migrants, many lacking visas, have arrived in Finland and applied for asylum since August; they are nationals of third countries who were transiting Russia, the authorities added. While the country’s interior ministry acknowledged in a Tuesday statement that the numbers are relatively low, it underlined that they have spiked within a short period.
Finland’s prime minister on Tuesday said while the government had no information if migrants were being encouraged to move toward the border, “it is clear that they are being helped. They have been escorted and transported,” Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, leader of the conservative National Coalition Party, claimed during a press conference earlier on Tuesday, according to Helsingin Sanomat. “The Russian border guard has clearly changed its practice. They allow people to cross the border without valid travel documents. The phenomenon has continued for a few weeks, but the first cases were isolated,” he added.
Finnish Interior Minister Mari Rantanen said the ministry will prepare a proposal to close border crossings and restrict cross-border traffic as needed.
“It seems that this is enabled by the Russian authorities, because the procedure deviates from what are the agreed practices at the border. It already gives reason to take measures,” Orpo told reporters in the country’s parliament on Tuesday, according to Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat.
Orpo said the phenomenon reminded him of the situation in 2015 and 2016, when hundreds of asylum seekers, many with no visas, entered Finland via its border with Russia.
At the time, Russian President Vladimir Putin asked his security officials to monitor the flow of migrants from Russia into Finland more closely.
After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, a number of applicants for temporary protection arrived in Finland from Ukraine with incomplete documents, the Finnish border authority said.
Tension between the two countries has escalated since the invasion, prompting Finland’s bid to join NATO.
