The Finnish Border Guard said on Tuesday that the number of arrivals from Russia has soared this week with about 60 asylum seekers coming since early on Monday. That compares with a total of 91 people arriving without required documents from August 1 to November 12.
Interior Minister Mari Rantanen said the number of crossings at Finland's southeastern border has risen substantially since August due to what the government suspects is a change in Russia's border policy and enforcement.
Finland last year adopted legislation that allows its Border Guard to stop receiving asylum applications at certain crossing points if the Nordic nation became a target of mass immigration orchestrated by another country. Rantanen said she was unable to explain why Moscow's border policy suddenly changed. Maybe [Russian officials] are annoyed by something in Finland's activities. You have to ask the Russian authorities about that, she said. We do hope that Russia changes its policy back.
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