government Prime Minister’s Peteri Olupo The (NCP) on Thursday decided to extend the closure of border crossings on the Finland-Russia border until February 11, 2024.
“According to the information collected by the authorities, it is very likely that Russia’s hybrid influence operations will resume and expand, as we saw earlier. Therefore, it is necessary for us to keep our eastern borders closed. “I think so,” the interior minister said. Mari Rantanen (P.S.).
The government said the information suggests migrants are continuing to wait in nearby areas for borders to reopen.
The previous decision on the border situation expired and all border crossings were supposed to reopen on January 14, 2024.
The government announced last week that it would regularly assess the nature and extent of border closures in cooperation with public authorities as the situation evolves. The closure will be lifted or modified if it is determined that there is no longer a need to protect against a “serious threat” to national security or public order.
Russian authorities allowed third-party migrants without the necessary travel documents to enter the Finnish-Russian border area between September and December. According to Helsingin Sanomat, 1,323 people who crossed the border into Finland applied for asylum.
Utis Olainen reported on Thursday that more than 120 asylum seekers were registered as missing at reception centres.
Antti Lehtinenthe head of the asylum unit at the Finnish Migration Service (Migri) told the press that the disappeared migrants may have continued their journey from Finland to other parts of the EU.
Most of them were Syrian nationals, he added.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT