SAFEGUARDING FINLAND’S NATIONAL SECURITY
Finland has been working on securing its eastern frontier by building fences along sections of the 1,300km-long border.
In July, Finland’s parliament approved a controversial law granting border guards the power to block asylum seekers crossing from Russia.
The Finnish border authority said more than 1,300 asylum seekers had entered Finland from Russia between August and December last year, 900 of them in November alone.
In comparison, the number before last August had averaged just one person daily.
The current situation is stable, said Colonel Mikko Lehmus of the Finnish Border Guard.
“But we know that risk levels are quite high, and the Russian Federation has the ability to conduct that kind of orchestrated immigration operation again,” he added.
“That’s why we need to maintain high preparedness and be ready to do efficient counter-measures on the eastern border as well as sea areas.”
At the eastern edge of the European Union, refugee charities are concerned about individuals now unable to use the border to seek refuge as well as the legality of the border closure.
“There are people in real need of asylum,” said Annu Lehtinen, executive director of the Finnish Refugee Council.
“These people and their human right to seek asylum should be always assessed on an individual basis, and this kind of law – which is a pushback law – in practice doesn’t recognise this right,” she added.
The Finnish government said the new law is about safeguarding Finland’s national security and sovereignty, and that they are seeking EU-level solutions to tackle what it calls instrumentalised migration.
