From next Friday, only one Finnish-Russian border crossing will be open. This is a Finnish decision to significantly tighten measures against the sudden increase in undocumented asylum seekers from Russia, international news agencies reported on Wednesday.
Finnish authorities believe that Moscow is causing the increase as revenge for Finland’s NATO accession and the upcoming defense deal with the United States. Russian border guards are said to have stopped stopping asylum seekers without a valid EU visa, from Syria, Yemen and Iraq, among others. The Kremlin denies this.
Last week, Helsinki closed four different border crossings with Russia, but this did not have the desired effect. Now the Finns are closing four more border crossings. Only the one in Lapland remains open.
Six hundred asylum seekers
Meanwhile, at least six hundred asylum seekers are said to have crossed the Finnish-Russian border without the necessary documents in November. In the months of September and October there were still several dozen.
According to the AP news agency, Finnish border guards and soldiers have now started erecting barriers along various border crossings, such as concrete obstacles with barbed wire. At 1,340 kilometers, the Finnish-Russian border is the longest that the European Union shares with Russia.
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