With the recent increase in asylum seekers crossing the Finnish-Russian border, Russia is seeking to recruit asylum seekers who come to Finland as spies, the Finnish Security Intelligence Service announced on Tuesday.
More than 1,000 asylum seekers have arrived in Finland in recent months via the country’s eastern border, which stretches more than 1,340 kilometers (1,340 kilometers) with Russia.
Dozens of people have irregularly crossed the eastern border into Finland in the last week alone, and the Finnish Border Guard said on Monday that there may be thousands of people on Finland’s eastern border ready to do the same. I presumed that there was.
However, some information released by the Finnish Security Intelligence Service suggests that Russia is recruiting some asylum seekers as informants to report back to Moscow.
“There are various ways to try to obtain cooperation, such as applying pressure, tying requests for cooperation to exit conditions, or promising financial benefits, etc.,” the intelligence agency told Finnish media. .
However, the agency says this phenomenon is not large-scale.
Since early August, more than 1,300 non-EU nationals, mainly from Syria, Somalia, Yemen and Iraq, have entered Finland through the Russian border.
According to the Finnish National Criminal Police (KRP), the large number of arrivals has delayed the identification of people who may pose a threat to internal security, and that such persons may have entered Finland illegally via the eastern border. It is considered.
(Charles Zumski | Euractiv.com)
