ALBAWABA - After giving a 24-hour notice, Finnish authorities announced the closure of its borders with Russia following weeks of tension between Helsinki and Moscow over the migration surge crisis.
Finnish government said on Tuesday it would close Raja-Jooseppi in Lapland, its last remaining border crossing point with Russia, on Wednesday night, until 13 December.
Finnish Prime Minister, Petteri Orpo announced the closure in a statement saying: "This is Russia’s influence operation and we do not accept it. This is an organised activity, not a genuine emergency,".
"I think this is another example of how Russia is using many different tools to put pressure on neighbors. We have seen them using energy, we have seen them using cyberattacks, we have seen them using different kinds of clandestine operations to try to undermine our democracies," Orpo added.
Only three migrants crossed into Finland through Raja-Jooseppi on Monday and zero on Tuesday, but the government said it was taking no chances with what it characterized as a threat to national security, BBC reported.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has called on "both sides to uphold state obligations under international law and guarantee the safety, dignity, and protection of migrants’ rights". It also called for expanded and improved safe routes "that can provide an alternative to resorting to smugglers and irregular migration".
The migration crisis on the border has escalated rapidly in the last two weeks when Finland accused Russia of driving asylum seekers to its border as an act of revenge for its cooperation with the US.
The border guard agency said it started noticing a change in approach by Russian authorities at the beginning of August when small numbers of people began arriving at the Finnish border without the required documents to enter the Schengen area.
