Policy|Belarus
“I have heard that people who speak Finnish also move there in the border area,” said Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto at Yle’s Ykkösaamussa.
To Finland some dozens of people displaced from Belarus across EU border have arrived, says Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto (green). According to him, it is possible that people have ended up in Finland with the help of Finnish or at least Finnish-speaking human traffickers.
“I myself have no evidence, but various rumors are moving. I have heard that people who speak Finnish also move there in the border area, ”Haavisto said in Yle’s Ykkösaamussa.
Haavisto specified that people who speak Finnish have moved on the border specifically on the Belarusian side.
“Trips have been arranged from Belarus, but what is the status of each person cannot be said.”
German Die Welt said earlier this week, based on EU documents, that migrants deported from Belarus across the EU border would seek out Finland as well as Germany. However, according to Haavisto, there are no indications of this. Where a few dozen people have come to Finland, about 8,000 people have come to Germany.
“It would seem that those who have gotten to Poland are heading mainly to Germany. The smaller group that has entered Lithuania or Latvia is smaller, and from there a small group, apparently a few dozen, has come to Finland. ”
Read more: “Finland is not the main destination” – Finland has received 19 asylum applications from those who came through Belarus, Germany goes on its own
Belarus has relocated thousands of people to the border with Poland and pushed them across the border into Poland. Earlier in the autumn, similar pressure was put on the border with Lithuania and Latvia. According to Haavisto, it is obvious that this is a hybrid operation in Belarus.
“I think this is a hybrid crisis. This is not a refugee crisis, it is an artificial situation. ”
The situation of people crossing the border is precarious, as both Belarus and Poland have closed the entire border area. Not even aid organizations can enter the area. Some people have already died at the border.
Haavisto says that in order to prevent deaths, access to the border area for the Red Cross should be guaranteed. He recalls that this was done even during the 2015 migration crisis on the border between Turkey and Greece.
“This is a violation of international humanitarian standards.”
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