All land borders between Finland and Russia will be closed until mid-February.
Finland’s southeastern border police announced on Saturday that no new illegal border crossings had been recorded, Finnish news agency STT reported.
On Friday, border authorities announced they had detained 11 Iranian men on suspicion of attempting to enter the country illegally on Thursday.
The men attempted to cross from Russia to Finland near the town of Lappeenranta, between the Nuijama border crossing and the town of Jotseno. After being detained, the group applied for asylum in Finland.
According to the government, 1,323 asylum seekers have arrived in Finland via the eastern border since August last year. Antti LehtinenHead of the Asylum Unit of the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri).
On Thursday, the government decided to close Finland’s eastern borders until February 11th.
In December, Finland closed all eight checkpoints along its eastern border with Russia amid suspicions that Russian authorities were deliberately funneling illegal asylum seekers to Finland’s borders.
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