Helsinki allowed a “cautious” opening of the border with Russia

The Finnish government may partially open the border with Russia if the so-called bill “On expulsion” is adopted, which will allow third-country citizens to be denied asylum right at the border and deported back to Russia. This was announced by Prime Minister of Finland Petteri Orpo.

According to him, first one border checkpoint will be opened, and then, “if cooperation is established on both sides of the border,” others will also open. Much depends on Russia, Orpo added.

The bill “on expulsion” prepared by the Finnish Ministry of Internal Affairs assumes that refugees arriving from Russia will be placed in special centers at or near the border until their asylum application is processed. Those denied asylum will be deported. The Finnish Parliament will consider the document next week. As Yle notes, the bill was criticized by human rights activists because, according to them, it violates the country’s constitution and international human rights obligations.

In the end of April Helsingin Sanomat reported that the Finnish authorities are in a hurry to pass the bill because they fear that if the weather improves, Russia will begin to allow asylum seekers across the land border and thereby pose a threat to the security of Finland.

Helsinki accuses Moscow of organizing a continuous flow of asylum seekers at the border. Russia denies this.

In November 2023, Finland closed its land border with Russia amid an influx of migrants without appropriate documents, leaving only one of the eight crossings open – the northernmost “Raya-Jooseppi” (on the Russian side – “Lotta”) in the Murmansk region. According to the Finnish Border Service, in November last year, about 900 migrants from countries such as Kenya, Morocco, Somalia, Yemen, Syria, and Pakistan entered Finland from Russia. Previously, the number of such applicants per day often did not exceed one, department officials note.

By law, such applicants cannot be sent back; they must be accommodated in Finland until the procedure for considering their application is completed.

In December, land border crossings were opened for a short time, but were closed again two days later. In February, Finnish authorities announced that the border would remain closed until at least April.

• Russian-Finnish relations have deteriorated sharply since the Russian large-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022. Finland abandoned its policy of neutrality and joined NATO. Moscow says that this decision will not remain without consequences. At the same time, Russia denies that they are using migration to put pressure on Finland.