Eastern border | Information from HS: The closure of the eastern border will be extended for a month

The government a decision is to be made on Thursday on the continuation of the closure of the stations on the eastern border.

The intention is that the stations that have been closed since December will be continued for a month. The government can still change the closing time on Thursday.

Although the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry and the presidential candidate of the Christian Democrats Sari Essayah confirmed on Wednesday night Ylen in the presidential examthat the border closure will be extended for a month. Essayah also sits on the joint foreign and security policy ministerial committee of the president and the government (tp-utva)

According to HS board sources, there are no political or legal obstacles to the decision. It was reported on Wednesday first Ilta-Sanomat.

If the government does not make a new decision, the decision to close the border made in December will expire at midnight on January 15.

According to HS's information, the government has so far received no information that Russia has changed its way of operating. Russia has allowed asylum seekers to the Finnish border with the intention of harassment.

The government the decision must be based on the current border guard law, because the government won't get any other legislation related to the border ready this week.

The current law allows the border to be closed indefinitely or temporarily. The condition is that the closure would be “necessary to combat a serious threat to public order, national security or public health”.

At the same time, the Government can decide to concentrate the application for international protection at one or more border crossing points. It must also be necessary to combat a serious threat to public order, national security or public health.

This can be done if there is an exceptionally large number of people entering the country in a short period of time, or if there is a well-founded suspicion that the entry is due to the influence of a foreign state or other actor.