HS in Lappeenranta | Border crossers say: Twenty asylum seekers arrived in Finland on brand new bikes

Lappeenranta On Tuesday, around two dozen asylum seekers had arrived at the Nuijamaa border station by three in the afternoon. Among them were adults, young people and children.

A reporter from HS who followed the border checks of passenger traffic at the border station on the spot Pihla Loula described the atmosphere at the Nuijamaa border station in the afternoon as calm and not crowded at all.

In addition to asylum seekers, a few Finnish passenger cars crossed the border. The Finns were able to continue their journey after the border inspection, while the asylum seekers were directed indoors to wait.

Back Among others, a married couple arrived on the Finnish side in the afternoon Elvira Kharkiv and Sergey Kharkov and their friends Lyudmila Mineeva. They had left Finland on Tuesday morning to go to Russia’s Vyborg to get gas. The price of gasoline in Russia is a quarter of the price in Finland, says Harkova.

In the afternoon, the trio was on their way back to Lappeenranta, where they have been living for a long time. On the way back, they had noticed a group of about ten people, among whom they had cycled or walked from the Russian side towards Finland.

The trio had paid particular attention to how they were on their way to Finland on brand new bicycles.

Finland the number of asylum seekers arriving at the eastern border has increased in recent days. The asylum seekers who were stopped at the border between Russia and Finland on Tuesday arrived in Finland mainly on foot or by bike.

The asylum seekers’ bikes were “like straight from the store”, also describes HS reporter Pihla Loula. Among the bikes at the Nuijamaa border station were also small children’s bikes.

Small pieces of tape were attached to their bodies.

In addition to the date and time, the pieces of tape read the name of the country, which probably refers to the home country of the asylum seekers. At the border station there was, among other things, a cluster of 16 bikes, five of which read Yemen and the rest Syria.

Asylum seekers who arrived on the Finnish side arrived at the border crossing on Tuesday, mainly in groups of a few people. Loula says that the authorities directed them to the interior of the border station to wait for transport to the reception center in Joutseno.

The notes attached to the bikes read the date, time and country. Picture: Juha Salminen / HS

The beginning of the week during the period dozens of asylum seekers whose documents were not in order have arrived at the border crossing points in Southeast Finland. During the last week, there were 34 visitors.

The Border Guard Service said on Sunday that since August, a larger than usual number of people with incomplete documents have arrived at the border crossing points in Southeast Finland.

They are citizens of third countries, including Iraqis, Syrians, Turks and Somalis. Persons have applied for asylum in Finland in connection with border checks.

Previously Russia has not allowed travelers with incomplete documents to continue to Finnish border crossings. Russia’s actions have indeed changed in recent months, at least at the crossing points in Southeast Finland.

Prime minister Petteri Orpo (cook) evaluate, that the eastern border of Finland is now seeing a similar situation as in Salla and Raja-Joosepi in 2015–2016. Minister of Defense Antti Häkkänen (cook) according to what the signs on the eastern border point to to the fact that at the border between Finland and Russia we see guided immigration.

Ministry of the Interior has started preparing restrictive measures for the eastern border, said the Minister of the Interior Mari Rantanen (ps) earlier on Tuesday. So far, it has not been decided how border crossings will be concretely restricted.