Conversion law | Stubb to MTV: Russia could move more than a thousand people to the border in a few hours

Russia able to organize thousands of migrants to the border in a short time, says the president Alexander Stubb for MTV at Suomi-Areena in Pori.

“According to our intelligence, Russia is able to transfer migrants to our border who are not traditional asylum seekers but people who are used as weapons and instrumentalized. Over a thousand in a few hours,” Stubb said.

With his statement, Stubb supported the enactment of the so-called conversion law. According to Stubb, the conversion law is a prerequisite for border crossings to be opened again someday.

“Russia has flown in migrants they call asylum seekers from Iraq, Yemen, Syria and Ethiopia. It will happen within about 48 hours. Then it is our task as Finnish decision-makers and authorities to see to it that this type of activity is stopped,” said Stubb.

The government has justified the conversion law by partly referring to encrypted information.

Government hastily push forward a law by which the application for international protection at the eastern border could be temporarily prevented and asylum seekers could be turned back without an appealable decision. The law would have exceptions: the most vulnerable could be taken into the country.

The Constitutional Law Committee heard 18 legal scholars in the case, each of which evaluates to HSthat the government’s proposal is in blatant contradiction with the human rights obligations that bind Finland.

The law would also be against the Finnish Constitution and EU law. According to jurists, EU law would override the national law in the matter, even if Finland enacted one.

The law would have to be enacted as an exceptional law, which requires a five-sixths majority from the parliament.

The law has also received criticism that it would put border guards in a difficult position: they would have to visually assess the vulnerability of the newcomer at the border, fearing legal consequences.

A member of the coalition Heikki Vestmanin headed by the Constitutional Law Committee, gave the law the green light and transferred the law to the Administrative Committee.

The committee did not take a position on how national security has been so seriously compromised that human rights can be deviated from. Russia machinates arrivals at the border in winterbut spring and summer have been quiet at the border, as the border crossings have remained closed.

The decisive position in the parliament will be held by the Sdp, within which there is a lively discussion about the law.