Finland considers new border restrictions as asylum seekers ‘impossible’ to return

Finnish President Sauli Niinisto addresses the 78th United Nations General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York, U.S. September 20, 2023. REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs/File photo acquire license rights

HELSINKI, Nov 20 (Reuters) – Finland said on Monday it had become impossible to return asylum seekers who did not meet protection criteria and said it could further restrict migrant entries from Russia following an increase in the number of applicants.

More than 500 asylum seekers, mostly from Yemen, Somalia, Syria and Iraq, have arrived in Finland – an eastern outpost of the European Union – via Russia in the past two weeks , prompting Helsinki to close half of its border crossings and accuse Moscow of funneling migrants to its border. Moscow denies these accusations.

“The expulsion of migrants who do not meet the asylum criteria has become impossible, so entering the border means staying in this country if you want,” Finnish President Sauli Niinisto said during a state visit Poland.

Niinisto called for a Europe-wide solution to end uncontrolled entry into the European Schengen area without a passport.

“It is impossible for each country to try alone to remedy the situation that could erupt immediately afterwards in a neighboring country,” Niinisto said.

Migrants entering Finland from Russia can now only seek asylum at two of the four remaining crossing points on their shared 1,340 km (830 mile) border.

Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said his government would take additional measures if necessary, but refused to say whether it would close all remaining border crossings with Russia.

“The main thing is that we are decisive… If there is no change in the situation, we will take measures more quickly,” Orpo said during a visit to the still open Vartius border post in about 700 km north of Helsinki,

Tomi Kivenjuuri, head of the Finnish border guard’s legal division, said not all those who arrived had initially wanted to come to Finland, but were forced to seek asylum after Russian authorities closed the doors of the border behind them.

“They had no other choice in this situation,” Kivenjuuri told Reuters.

The Kremlin said Monday it had lodged a formal protest against the partial border closure, saying the move reflected an anti-Russian stance.

In 2021, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia accused Moscow’s close ally Belarus of artificially creating a migrant crisis on their borders by flying in people from the Middle East and Africa and attempting to push them across the border – a charge Belarus has repeatedly denied.

Reporting by Essi Lehto in Helsinki; additional reporting by Terje Solsvik and Gwladys Fouche in Oslo and Anna Ringstrom in Stockholm; edited by Jonathan Oatis and Gareth Jones

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