Finland extended its closing of border crossings with Russia on Thursday after enacting an emergency law temporarily overriding the constitution on the basis of a threat to national security. The current closure was set to end on April 14th, but will now continue indefinitely.
The country started closing most entry point last fall, accusing Russia of weaponizing migration by sending migrants—specifically from African and Arab countries—to Finland. In addition to border crossings on land, five ports will now bar any entry from Russia.
Migri, the Finnish migration authorities, said it received over 1,300 asylum applications at the eastern border between August and December of 2023—1,200 of them in the last two months of the year.
Prime Minister Petteri Orpo told Finnish media in mid-March that the pressure on the eastern border must be expected to continue. While migrant flows have slowed in the first months of 2024, Orpo said it was “necessary to prepare for the fact that the situation may become more difficult when spring arrives.”
The Finnish Protection Police Supo warned last week that, while the country’s NATO membership serves as protection from more aggressive action, Russia can show its dissatisfaction with its western neighbor in other ways, including through weaponized or “instrumentalized” migration.
At the beginning of this century, there were 20 entry points on the border between the two countries. All but six were closed in 2011, and the last open border crossing closed in late November 2023.
Under international human rights law, migrants have the right to apply for asylum at the border. But this agreement, Orpo pointed out, did not take into consideration a situation where one country abused this to the detriment of another country. In an announcement, the Finnish government said that “the legitimate need of member states to be able to protect their territory has also been recognized at the EU level.”
The emergency law only applies to “instrumentalized” migration, Minister of the Interior Mari Rantanen emphasized. Asylum seekers arriving at the border will still be able to present their case to the border authorities for assessment of whether their asylum claims are valid.
While previously, border guards had to apprehend illegal migrants identified at the border, the temporary law will now allow them to completely stop illegal migrants from entering Finnish territory, using force if necessary. Particularly vulnerable migrants—children, pregnant women, or disabled people—can be exempted.
Finnish immigration authorities expect to receive around 4,000 asylum applications this year, in addition to 8,000-12,000 applications from Ukrainian refugees under the EU temporary protection program.
