Finland extends ban on migrants seeking asylum on Russia border
HELSINKI - Finland's parliament on Wednesday voted in favour of extending emergency legislation that allows the Nordic country to reject asylum applications from migrants on its closed eastern border with Russia and to send them back.
Finland has kept all passenger crossing points closed along its 1,340-kilometre (833-mile) long eastern border with Russia since the end of 2023, after accusing Russia of an attempt to destabilise Finland by sending migrants from Africa and Asia to the border, an accusation Moscow has denied.
In 2023, some 1,300 migrants arrived via Russia, prompting the government in 2024 to pass emergency legislation permitting it to reject migrants and their asylum applications, against EU rules and Finland's international commitments, for a period of one year.
Finland's right-wing government had asked parliament to extend the validity of the emergency law by 1.5 years until the end of 2026, which parliament approved with 168 members in favour and 29 against on Wednesday.
"Border law accomplished, just barely. Thanks to the large majority who thought of the best for the homeland," Finance Minister Riikka Purra of the ruling nationalist Finns Party wrote in a post.
The government needed the support of 5/6 of lawmakers in the 200-strong parliament to pass the extension as an emergency law, a high bar reflecting the fundamental principles at stake.
"Finland should be a state governed by the rule of law and respond to the actions of its neighbour in a corresponding manner, not by abandoning its own constitution and international obligations, in other words, by acting like Russia," chair Minja Koskela of opposition Left Alliance said in a statement ahead of the vote.
The flow of migrants stopped after Finland closed down all official border crossing points, and in 2024 only eight people crossed the border illegally after January, interior ministry data showed. REUTERS
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