3 Arrested in Finland for Attempting to Cross the Border Illegally.
Three people have been arrested on two different occasions by the Finnish Border Guards (RAIA) last week due to their attempts to cross the country’s borders illegally.
According to RAIA, two people were arrested on July 10 after being caught travelling illegally across the Finnish South Karelia borderline. The same were found to have applied for
An early investigation has been initiated on crimes related to illegal border crossing following this incident, during which it was also found that the arrested persons had applied for asylum in the country as well.
Through the same statement, RAIA has also reported on another case recorded previously on July 8 at the Vaalimaa border.
The border inspector had become suspicious when he was presented with a residency document issued by Polis authorities at the entry check, held by a Russian man. The officer had thus decided to carry out a more thorough document examination on the identification card.
As a result, the person’s presented residence permit document was discovered to be false.
The suspect soon admitted to purchasing the fake card for €1,600 during the initial investigation. Further, it was discovered that a friend of the resident of Finland had sent the fraudulent residence permit card to Russia.
The border guard in southeast Finland is looking into the potential involvement of a resident of Finland in the organization of illegal immigration.
Such cases of illegal immigration have become quite common lately in Finland. Previously five people were arrested and jailed under the suspicion of illegal immigration with false documentation in Finland.
The case was made known by the Finnish Border Guard (RAIA) too, who, after the investigations, revealed that the suspects were part of organised crime, helping people travel within Europe using fake identification documents or documentation that was not their own.
According to Statistics Finland, the migration rate from Russia to Finland in 2022 marked record numbers (6,000), never registered before. In total, 50,000 immigrants entered Finland last year, with citizens from Russia leading the list, followed by Sweden, India, Estonia, the Philippines, Ukraine and Turkey.
According to data from Trading Economics, asylum applications in Finland increased from 230 in April 2023 to 295 in May 2023.
In 2022, 3,100 first-asylum applications were submitted in Finland, without including the applications from Ukraine citizens, whereas the total number of asylum applications in Finland for that year was 5,827.
