Border control People near the eastern border say how the threat of a hybrid operation a stone’s throw from home feels: “I guess the fences don’t stop people from coming.”

Swan

“Access prohibited without permission, ”reads in sticky letters on a yellow ribbon tied to a decaying birch trunk. A dozen trees marked with similar strips form a row that continues as yellow poles sticking out of the adjacent lake.

“Russia is visible there,” he says Veli-Matti Rantala and points toward the back of the gray lake.

We are in Joutseno, Lappeenranta, on the shores of Lake Suokumaa. Rantala knows that in winter the lake gives pike and in summer there are enough cottages on its shores.

There is another task on the lake. The border between Finland and Russia runs through it. The border is farther than the eye can see: the countries have a common border of more than 1,300 kilometers.

The border is surrounded by a border zone that does not unnecessarily carry out its important function. At its edge, progress is slow in places, and the wet land of wet leaves sinks under your foot every step of the way.

Eastern border has been on the lips of politicians in recent days.

Former Minister of the Interior Kai Mykkänen (Kok) said last week in an interview with Democrat that Finland should consider building a fence on Finland’s eastern border.

The idea is not unique. The migration crisis that erupted on the Belarusian-Polish border hastened the Polish parliament a couple of weeks ago to build a wall on the Polish-Belarusian border. On Wednesday Estonia announced that it will build a total of 40 kilometers of barbed wire fence to the country’s border with Russia.

There have already been sections between the countries where the border is fenced. Border barriers have also been built between Latvia and Russia and between Lithuania and Russia’s Kaliningrad.

Read more: “More and more migrants” gather on the Belarusian-Polish border – Poland to start building a wall on the border next month

Joutsenon There is no information about the border fences in Lake Suokumaa. Rantala knows the area well, as his almost 120-year-old house is located by the lake.

Should fencing be considered here as well?

Rantala does not directly knock out the idea. However, he is skeptical.

“I guess the only harm would be that it would be expensive. We have a limit so much that taxes should probably be raised to cover the price of the fence.”

The head of the Border Guard, Lieutenant General, also considered a comprehensive border fence unlikely. Pasi Kostamovaara earlier this week In an interview with HS. However, according to Kostamovaara, fencing some areas could be considered.

Would this be like that? Hard to say.

Rantala does not consider it probable that asylum seekers will arrive in Finland across the unfenced border along this forest.

Or if that happened, it would take effort. The eastern border is in some places quite difficult to navigate. On the Russian side, the nearest cities are the industrial city of Enso, just over ten kilometers away, and Vyborg, about 40 kilometers away.

In Swan However, many people remember that asylum seekers arrived in the country on a surprising route also in 2015 and 2016, when Russia began to allow asylum seekers across the eastern border to Finland, especially through the border stations of Salla and Raja-Joosep in Lapland.

The proximity of the border is also visible in the swan. Here is the largest reception center in the region, which at its best housed more than 500 asylum seekers at a time during the 2015–2016 refugee crisis.

With the coronavirus epidemic, the number of asylum applications to Finland collapsed, and the number of places at the Joutseno reception center was reduced from 300 to 250 in August.

The center now has space for about 80 new people, says the director of the reception center on the premises of the former prison in Konnunsuo. Antti Jäppinen.

“We are ready to more than double the capacity of the center quickly,” says Jäppinen.

According to him, the Polish-Belarusian border operation has not contributed to the Centre’s preparedness, as the Center is constantly preparing for situations where the number of people accommodated will have to be significantly increased.

The center there has been a restaurant for sale nearby for a while. Owner Eira Bekanov-Rastas regrets that there have been no potential buyers despite the press release.

The Bekanov-Rasta restaurant is the only one nearby. For lunch, the menu features homemade sausage sauce, mousse and rosol.

Bekanov-Rastas says that the asylum seeker crisis of 2015–2016 increased the restaurant’s sales. A lot of the residents of the reception center still visit as customers.

“They are terribly polite. I once had Iraqi customers to whom I sold as a debt when there was not enough money. Two to three years later, they went to pay off their debts and regretted that they were in debt after leaving the center so quickly, ”says Bekanov-Rastas.

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“Legislation should get there at the border.”

For the locals the border also exists between crises. Many think that border relations should be managed primarily through political means, not genuine ones.

This is how, for example, a person in the center of Joutseno thinks Hilkka Kunttu.

“I guess those fences don’t stop people from coming. Legislation or something else should be there at the border, ”Kunttu reflects.

The Imatra resident agrees Joona Kukkonen.

“I don’t completely knock out the idea of ​​a fence. Maybe it could reduce the efficiency of operations that Russia, for example, could use against us, ”says Kukkonen.

However, the rooster worries that talking about the fence will distract him from dealing with the matter through diplomacy.

“It would be a downside to not focusing on the threat itself, but on its symptoms. That it would be a matter of leaving the fence upright and no longer having to worry. ”

Asylum issues Finland is bound by international agreements. According to them, the right to seek asylum is a human right that must not be restricted, even in exceptional circumstances.

That is why the jurists interviewed by the HS have found it problematic, for example, the Coalition Party’s proposal for a law reform that would allow the border to be temporarily closed to asylum seekers.

Hilkka Kunttu says that the number of asylum seekers in 2015–2016 caused fear and mistrust in some Swans. He himself did not experience the same.

“I am now looking at the situation in Poland. People are being used there as a means of operation, and the situation that has arisen there is not the fault of the refugees. Families in particular should be helped. ”

Joona Kukkonen also says that the climate in Imatra changed to some extent as a result of the asylum seeker crisis of 2015–2016.

“I remember you didn’t always hear terribly tolerant stuff back then.”

Although The 1,300-kilometer eastern border is now a national topic of conversation, reminds Veli-Matti Rantala that the border is quite familiar to locals, even outside of acute crises.

“Yes, we are aware that if something big happens, we should leave pretty soon.”

The proximity of the border also raises everyday questions, such as whether it has an impact on the attractiveness of the region in the eyes of others. Young people rarely move to the region, Rantala says.

“Houses are not terribly expensive here. Even so, I have been wondering if the proximity of the border is the reason. ”