Deportations of migrants from Russia: a controversial bill in Finland

As tensions have escalated with Russia since thereFinland has joined NATO, A dispute now opposes the two countries concerning the arrival of migrants at their common border.

Helsinki accuses Moscow of organizing flows of asylum seekers with a view to destabilizing the country. So much so that Finnish authorities have decided to close their border this winter.

Since then, the government has sought to secure its legislation to allow border authorities to refuse to accept asylum applications in certain circumstances.

But the bill is controversial.

This last “seriously threatens access to asylum and protection against forced returns to Finland. It risks giving a green light to violence and illegal forced returns at the border”, Amnesty International recently denounced.

More officially still, the new human rights commissioner Council of Europe Secretary of State Michael O’Flaherty has called for the bill to be withdrawn.

But for Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, there is urgency: “The law we have proposed can of course be amended here in Parliament, but not watered down. It makes no sense to create an emergency law that does not work. That is the limit, and it is something that Parliament and the (parliamentary) Commission must assess. From my point of view as Prime Minister, I believe that Finland needs this law. And I hope that Parliament will now find solutions that will allow us to obtain the 5/6 majority, and after that, we can feel safer.”

If passed, the legislation would allow Finnish border authorities to refuse to accept conditional asylum applications. The parliamentary committee in charge of the file is continuing its work but the work is blocked.

Finland shares a 1,340 km border with Russia and has eight official border crossings. Last fall, Helsinki accused Russia of helping some 1,000 migrants reach its border in retaliation for its integration into NATO following the war in Ukraine. An accusation denied by Moscow.

Last April, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, also judged that Moscow was concentrating its “Hybrid” attacks on Finland by exploiting migrants.