by Claudio Del Frate
These are asylum seekers from Afghanistan and Syria. Helsinki accuses the Kremlin of wanting to provoke a crisis similar to that of 2021 on the border with Poland
Dozens of migrants, mostly from Syria and Afghanistan, are gathering at the border between Russia and Finland, trying to enter European Union territory and seek political asylum. The Helsinki government directly accused the Kremlin of deliberately sending foreigners to the border in retaliation for Finland’s entry into NATO. This would be a case of a “transversal war” launched by Russians using migrants as weapons, as happened on the border with Poland in 2021.
The diplomatic crisis has already led Finland to close some of the busiest border points with its Russian neighbor in recent days. Police also increased passive defense tools by rolling out barbed wire, deploying heavy vehicles and increasing the number of officers. From a numerical point of view, the phenomenon is not yet significant: on Saturday, for example, there were only 67 foreigners who tried to cross the border, but their number is increasing (in the previous three months there were a total of 91). ) and, above all, there is a risk that it will become a humanitarian problem. In fact, the temperature is now below zero and migrants are setting up makeshift camps near the barrier that separates the two countries.
Some images show a small group of people in light clothing appearing on bicycles at the Finnish border post: a police cordon blocks their path, some try to break through the obstacle but are thrown back into Russian territory.
Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said at a news conference that Russia had changed its practice by allowing people to access the border without the necessary travel documents. “It is clear that these people are being helped and are also being escorted or transported to the border by border guards; For our part, we must ensure the security of our eastern border,” said Orpo, who leads a center-right coalition. The executive branch passed a law allowing it to stop accepting asylum seekers if the country becomes the target of mass immigration organized by another country.
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November 20, 2023 (modified November 20, 2023 | 6:48 p.m.)
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