HELSINKI, 18 Nov. Annual record for arrival of asylum seekers set on Friday, November 17, there were 163 people at land checkpoints in Finland on the border with Russia, the border detachment of South-Eastern Finland reports.
Over the entire year in Finland, along the entire land border with Russia, 335 applications for asylum were registered from citizens of Iraq, Syria, Somalia and other countries, with the bulk of them since the beginning of November.
“Yesterday, the total number of asylum applications submitted was 163 people,” says the message of the border guards of south-east Finland on the microblogging network X.
The Finnish Cabinet, due to the worsening situation with migration on the border with Russia, decided from November 18 to February 18, 2024, completely close border checkpoints in the southeast of the country, closest to St. Petersburg. Four of the eight checkpoints are closed, the checkpoints that continue to operate are located in the north of Finland, only two of the operating ones, Vartius and Salla, will accept asylum applications, the Finnish government has decided.