Following the ongoing instrumentalised migration concerns between Russia and Finland, the latter still has no plans to reopen its eastern border in the near future.
The indefinite border closure was announced by Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, who, during an interview, expressed skepticism that Moscow would not use the border to pursue its interests, Schengen News reports.
We would need assurance that Russia is ready to cooperate based on the previous model, where both countries ensured that only people with valid travel documents arrived at border stations.
As Ye News explains, Prime Minister Orpo was also pleased with the adoption of a new law that allows the authorities to limit the acceptance of requests for international protection under certain conditions.
According to Orpo, Finland is asking the new European Commission to present legislation to tackle so-called instrumentalized immigration across the EU.
Finnish Border Guard Can Now Turn Away Asylum Seekers Coming Via Russia
The Finnish Parliament approved a law aimed at preventing instrumentalised immigration at the beginning of July. Meanwhile, it officially came into force at the end of the same month. The country’s authorities said such an act would remain in force for about a year.
The deportation act allows for a temporary exception to the constitution in a national emergency, meaning border guards can block asylum seekers from entering the country and deny them the right to appeal.
Widespread accusations that Russia is trying to “weaponise” migration on its eastern border with Finland by encouraging migrants from countries such as Syria and Somalia to cross the border called for the implementation of this law.
Poland Also Continues to Keep in Place Border Measures With Russia
Poland has also been experiencing a similar state of what it says is a form of Moscow-backed hybrid warfare on its border with Belarus since 2021, when large numbers of migrants began trying to cross illegally. Both Warsaw and the EU say that Belarus and its ally Russia are among the organisers of the crisis, flying in migrants from the Middle East and Africa.
The Polish Parliament recently approved controversial proposals to decriminalise the use of firearms by border guards for self-defense under certain circumstances.
In this regard, NGOs say that the legal changes contradict human rights standards. Still, the government says that they are necessary to protect Poland’s border with Belarus from increasingly aggressive immigrant gangs.
The legislative changes were initially introduced in the spring after two significant incidents on the Polish-Belarusian border. The first case involves a soldier who died on June 6 after being attacked with a knife by an immigrant; in the other incident, the military police arrested two soldiers after firing warning shots at the immigrants.
