Written by Essi Lehto
HELSINKI (Reuters) – Finland said on Tuesday “thousands” of third-country migrants were waiting to cross the border from Russia into its territory.
Finland closed all its borders on its 1,340-kilometer (830-mile) border with Russia late last year after an increase in people arriving without valid documents to enter the European Union. Helsinki has accused Moscow of herding migrants at its borders, a claim the Kremlin denies.
“We have information that thousands of people from the Russian side are waiting to arrive in Finland,” Interior Minister Mari Rantanen told a news conference, adding that this was a “threat to society.”
Rantanen declined to say how Finnish authorities obtained the information.
Finland’s forested border region sees sub-zero temperatures and deep snow during the winter, but as spring arrives and temperatures gradually rise, more migrants may attempt to enter the country illegally, Rantanen said. said.
Rantanen said current EU law does not provide solutions to deal with situations like the one facing Finland.
Finnish border authorities have announced that more than 1,300 asylum seekers from countries such as Yemen, Somalia and Syria entered Finland from Russia between August and December last year, 900 of them in November alone. In contrast, before August last year, there was an average of just one person per day.
Finland’s Immigration Service told Reuters in January that it could not locate around 160 of the migrants, who had probably traveled to other European countries.
Relations between Russia and Finland were once relatively friendly, but have sharply deteriorated since Helsinki decided to join NATO following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
Finland’s Ministry of the Interior announced on Monday that it would quickly draft legislation to strengthen border security and counter Russian government attempts to put pressure on Finland in the form of forced migration.
The government plans to submit a proposal to parliament next month, it added.
(Reporting by Essi Lehto; Editing by Terje Solsvik and Gareth Jones)