Helsinki and Moscow closed the Arctic route for migrants and refugees
Finland announced today that it has signed a bilateral agreement with Russia bans transit migrants from the border of the two states, through which both parties seek to close the Arctic route towards the Schengen Area.
Hereafter, "only nationals of Finland, Russia and Belarus (...) will be able to cross the border through Salla crossings and Raya-Gioosepi northern Finland," he said in a statement the Finnish government.
"The purpose of these restrictions is to tackle organized illegal migration", the statement added.
The agreement, valid for six months, which was announced the day after a meeting between the presidents Saul Niiniste and Vladimir Putin in Moscow, will enter into force as soon as the technical details are solved for formal ratification in both countries.
More than 1,700 asylum seekers, mostly Afghans and Syrians, entered the Schengen area via these two border outposts in the last four months.
Finland, a country of 5.4 million inhabitants, received 32,000 asylum seekers last year.
In Finnish Lapland began to arrive at the beginning of the year asylum seekers who are no longer allowed to cross the Russian-Norwegian border, further north.
In 2015 about 5,500 people followed the Arctic route towards Norway. The flow of refugees and immigrants in December halted when the Scandinavian kingdom banned the entry into its territory of immigrants legally living in Russia or were crossing this country, going to their refoulement.
Norway, after the criticism received from non-governmental organizations and the UNHCR UNHCR since abandoned to their fate in the Russian Arctic polar temperatures; -under immigrants, among them people who were entitled to be granted asylum, stopped these deportations at the end of January.
Finland announced today that it has signed a bilateral agreement with Russia bans transit migrants from the border of the two states, through which both parties seek to close the Arctic route towards the Schengen Area.
Hereafter, "only nationals of Finland, Russia and Belarus (...) will be able to cross the border through Salla crossings and Raya-Gioosepi northern Finland," he said in a statement the Finnish government.
"The purpose of these restrictions is to tackle organized illegal migration", the statement added.
The agreement, valid for six months, which was announced the day after a meeting between the presidents Saul Niiniste and Vladimir Putin in Moscow, will enter into force as soon as the technical details are solved for formal ratification in both countries.
More than 1,700 asylum seekers, mostly Afghans and Syrians, entered the Schengen area via these two border outposts in the last four months.
Finland, a country of 5.4 million inhabitants, received 32,000 asylum seekers last year.
In Finnish Lapland began to arrive at the beginning of the year asylum seekers who are no longer allowed to cross the Russian-Norwegian border, further north.
In 2015 about 5,500 people followed the Arctic route towards Norway. The flow of refugees and immigrants in December halted when the Scandinavian kingdom banned the entry into its territory of immigrants legally living in Russia or were crossing this country, going to their refoulement.
Norway, after the criticism received from non-governmental organizations and the UNHCR UNHCR since abandoned to their fate in the Russian Arctic polar temperatures; -under immigrants, among them people who were entitled to be granted asylum, stopped these deportations at the end of January.
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