On Friday, the Finnish Parliament passed a border security law proposed by the country’s right-wing government, authorizing border guards to prevent asylum seekers from Russia from entering the country. The legislation is temporary, with a validity period of one year from the date of enactment.
Friday saw Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo and Interior Minister Mari Rantanen hold a press conference in the parliament hall to discuss the latest border security bill. They emphasized that the new border security law aims to uphold Finland’s national security and sovereignty.
Orpo stated, “It is important that we have legislation in place to combat instrumentalized migration and ensure that public authorities can take action even in the most difficult border situations.”
Rantanen added, “Russia is using instrumentalized migration to attack Finland. Finland is a rule-of-law country, and we cannot accept anyone exploiting migration issues for nefarious purposes.”
During a plenary session on Friday, the Parliament passed the law after two rounds of voting. In the first vote, the bill was declared an emergency law with a vote of 167 to 31, and in the second vote, the law was passed with the same margin of 167 to 31. The proposal required a two-thirds majority vote in the 200-seat Parliament to pass.
The law has sparked controversy, with some opposition party members, scholars, legal experts, and human rights organizations arguing that it conflicts with the Finnish Constitution and international human rights commitments under the UN.
Finland has accused neighboring Russia of encouraging a large number of immigrants from countries like Syria and Somalia to cross the border and instrumentalizing migration, but the Kremlin has denied these allegations.
Since early August 2023, over 1300 undocumented immigrants have entered Finland from Russia within three months. As a result, Finland closed its 1340-kilometer land border with Russia at the end of last year.
Helsinki believes that Moscow is encouraging border crossings by immigrants as a retaliation for Finland joining NATO, which supports Ukraine in resisting Russian invasion.
Finland’s move is similar to measures taken in recent years by other European countries including Poland and Lithuania to reduce the likelihood of immigration crossing the border from Russia and neighboring Belarus.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Finland and Sweden abandoned their non-aligned stance and applied for NATO membership. Since Finland formally joined NATO in April 2023, the NATO-Moscow border has expanded by about twice the original length.
On Tuesday, Finnish Defense Minister Antti Häkkänen signed three agreements at the NATO summit in Washington, including the Summit Declaration on NATO Airspace, a Memorandum of Understanding on Alliance Continued Space Surveillance, and an Intention Agreement on Multinational Cooperation in developing and deploying Alliance Cloud and Edge Services Software.