Finland partially reopens its border with Russia

Finland said on Tuesday it would reopen two border crossings with Russia, partially reversing a decision to close the country’s land border after a dispute over increased numbers of migrants in the area.

In recent weeks, Finland had gradually closed all its border crossings with Russia, with Moscow accused of facilitating a potentially destabilizing influx of migrants. Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said on Tuesday his government would monitor the effect of the partial reopening and assess whether Russia had stopped what he described as its “operation”.

“Without scaling back restrictions, we cannot verify whether there will be a change for the better,” Orpo said at a news conference. But, he added, if Russia continued to funnel migrants into the area, the border crossings would close again.

Why did Finland close its border?

Relations between Moscow and Helsinki deteriorated significantly after Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine, which prompted Finland to join NATO. Finnish authorities have said Russia has encouraged migrants to travel to the country’s border in an attempt to undermine Finnish national security and public order.

Finnish authorities claim that a much higher number of migrants seeking asylum is putting pressure on immigration services and increasing the risk of ‘radicalised’ people entering.

In November, about 900 migrants – mainly from Africa and Asia – crossed the 1,330-kilometer border between Finland and Russia to seek asylum in Finland, a marked increase compared to previous months, Finnish authorities said.

Russia says allegations that it helped migrants reach the border are “unfounded.” Since Finland started closing its border crossings, Russian authorities have told reporters that they have sent back to St. Petersburg some asylum seekers who had the right to remain in Russia, while fining others who were in the country illegally. deported, according to the Russian news agency Interfax.

When did the border close?

Finland started closing border crossings in mid-November; the last one to remain open – the Raja-Jooseppi border crossing in northern Lapland – was closed on November 30.

Only the Vainikkala railway crossing in southeastern Finland was open to commercial overland traffic. According to the Finnish Border Guard, air and water crossings remained open, including for asylum seekers.

Tuesday’s announcement about the reopening of two border crossings concerned the Vaalimaa and Niirala border crossings in southern Finland.

Have other countries had similar problems?

Last month, Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said his country was also prepared to close its border with Russia over similar complaints.

“What is happening at the Finnish border is nothing less than a blatant hybrid attack,” Tsahkna said at a meeting of Scandinavian and Baltic foreign ministers in Brussels. He said Moscow’s actions were “aimed at sowing fear and instability.”

Estonia also advised its citizens against traveling to Russia if Estonian authorities decided to close border crossings.

Frontex, the European Union’s border agency, has deployed staff to strengthen border security in Finland, which is a member of the bloc. The agency said the security of Finland’s eastern border was “a matter of collective European concern”.

In the past, Poland and the Baltic countries have also accused Belarus of using migrants as a political weapon.

Do the Finns support the closures?

Public opinion in Finland has largely been in favor of the border closures, with 75 percent of the population saying they support them. an opinion poll by one of Finland’s most important newspapers, Helsingin Sanomat.

Only 10 percent opposed it, the poll showed, although left-wing opposition parties had criticized it over concerns about the impact on asylum seekers.

Li Andersson, the chairman of an opposition party, Left Alliance, said closing the border crossings would reduce opportunities for refugees to seek international protection, which is a human right enshrined in the Geneva Convention, which Finland is a signatory to.

Speaking to Finnish public broadcaster YLE this month, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto said that the Geneva Convention on Refugees referred to “a completely different situation from the one we are witnessing,” because in this case Russia used migrants to ‘ confuse and divide’.

Ivan Nechepurenko contributed reporting from Tbilisi, Georgia.