Finland’s border guard said on Tuesday that Russian authorities are likely heavily involved in transporting migrants to two crossings that remain open as the Nordic country tries to stem the flow of arrivals from Russia.
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 a surge over the past two weeks, prompting Helsinki to close half of their tickets. and accuse Moscow of funneling migrants to locals.
Moscow denies the accusation.
As Helsinki considers closing the entire border, migrants are arriving from Russia in cars and trucks and then being dropped off and cycled near the Finnish border for the final stretch, the head of the Finnish Border Guard’s legal division said , Tomi. Kivenjuuri.
“It is very likely that the Russian authorities are heavily involved in the transport operation. Most likely the border guards are involved on their side,” Kivenjuuri told Reuters.
Finland and Russia have jointly banned border crossings on foot. Last week, the Finnish border guard unilaterally banned bicycles, but Russia continues to allow migrants to cross the country on bicycles.
Only two remote northern border crossings, at Vartius and Salla, continue to receive asylum applications from migrants after Finland closed four crossings and erected barriers to prevent illegal crossings.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday denied Finland’s accusation that Russia deliberately sent illegal migrants to the border and said Russian border guards were carrying out their tasks according to the rules.
Finland’s immigration authority, Migri, said that all incoming asylum applications were being processed, but that the agency was speeding up the departure from the country of people who were clearly not entitled to asylum.
Source: Terra
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