The Russian police arrested a couple of thousand immigrants from Middle Eastern countries in St. Petersburg on New Year's. Finland is not going to open the eastern border yet because it fears that Russia's hybrid operation will continue.
Russian side seems to still have migrants who would possibly want to cross the eastern border.
On New Year's Eve, the police arrested around two thousand migrants from the Middle East in St. Petersburg, the news agency reported. Tass on the first day of the year.
The press service of the Russian Interior Ministry's St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region General Directorate commented to Tassi that the purpose of the arrests was to secure order “preventively”.
According to the police, numerous violations of the Immigration Act were revealed during the inspections of the migrants. The police say that the arrests were part of measures aimed at ensuring “the safety of city dwellers and tourists” during New Year's Eve.
Also Algerian Fouad was arrested by the police in Murmansk at the end of November. HS was interviewed Fouad, who aspired to Finland, and his two Algerian companions the day before in a Murmansk cafe.
HS tried to contact Fouad again by text message in early December. Fouad did not read the message until a few weeks later on December 21.
“Hi, how are you?” Fouad wrote. “The story did not end in Murmansk.”
Fouad reported that the police had arrested him and his friends on November 26 and sent him to prison. The men were released after four weeks on December 21.
Inside according to Fouad, the Algerians had to spend many days paying bribes to be able to use the phone. The phone had cost 4,000 rubles, or about 40 euros.
The men called the Algerian consul in Moscow and asked him for help. The consul advised to contact the relatives and book the plane tickets first, after which he would intervene in the game.
After that, the consul had sent an email to the prison management. According to Fouad, the consul and the prison management agreed on the matter.
“When the date of the booked flights arrived, we were escorted to the airport like terrorists, even though we are nothing but ordinary people.”
Fouad sends two photos of him in handcuffs.
The prison Fouad describes the conditions as terrible.
“We were two people in a very small cell.”
Fouad arrived in Algeria on December 21.
Are you going to try to go to Finland again at some point?
“No,” Fouad replies.
The reason is that he was banned from entering Russia for five years and fined 5,000 rubles (50 euros).
Russian news agency Interfax said at the beginning of December that the courts of the Murmansk region had decided to deport 67 migrants between November and December.
They were citizens of Somalia, Pakistan, Syria, Kenya, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Iran, India, Egypt, Morocco, Afghanistan and Algeria, among others.
According to Interfax, everyone was fined two thousand rubles, or 20 euros.
Finland's border crossing points on the eastern border have been closed for a month. The border was supposed to open on Monday, January 15, but the Finnish government has decided to extend the closure for another month. An official decision is expected on Thursday.
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