Finland’s government said on Tuesday that Russia has recently been allowing asylum seekers to enter its territory without the necessary travel documents, calling it an “international crime.”
According to the Finnish border service, 91 undocumented migrants, many lacking visas, have arrived in Finland and applied for asylum since August; they are nationals of third countries who were transiting Russia, the authorities added. While the country’s interior ministry acknowledged in a Tuesday statement that the numbers are relatively low, it underlined that they have spiked within a short period.
Russian border guards have been leaving the migrants at the border with Finland, Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, leader of the conservative National Coalition Party, claimed during a press conference earlier on Tuesday, as reported by Reuters. “It is clear that these people are helped and they are also being escorted or transported to the border by border guards,” he said.
Finnish Interior Minister Mari Rantanen said the ministry will prepare a proposal to close border crossings and restrict cross-border traffic as needed.
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“The phenomenon has been going on for a few weeks, but the first cases were isolated. Yesterday there were already a few dozen arrivals, so the matter must be taken seriously,” Orpo told reporters in the country’s parliament on Tuesday, according to Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat.
According to the Financial Times, Orpo said the phenomenon reminded him of the situation in 2015 and 2016, when hundreds of asylum seekers, many with no visas, entered Finland via its border with Russia.
At the time, Russian President Vladimir Putin asked his security officials to monitor the flow of migrants from Russia into Finland more closely.
According to the border authority, after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, a number of applicants for temporary protection arrived in Finland from Ukraine with incomplete documents.
Tension between the two countries has escalated since the invasion, prompting Finland’s bid to join NATO.