(Bloomberg) -- Finland’s parliament voted in favor of a law that allows the Nordic country to push back migrants that Russia sends to its border as part of Moscow’s hybrid warfare.
The temporary law on “instrumentalized immigration” will allow Finland to prevent people seeking asylum at or near its eastern border, without the possibility of appeal. It’s intended to counter what Helsinki deems is an attempt by the Kremlin to undermine the country’s national security through migration.
“This is a strong message to Russia and to our allies that Finland looks after its own security as well as the border security of the European Union,” Prime Minister Petteri Orpo told reporters in Helsinki.
Finland faced an inflow of migrants last autumn, with Russian authorities known to be assisting the people to the border. While the operation was halted after road checkpoints were closed in November, Finland continues to see it as an imminent threat, and Finland’s President Alexander Stubb told Finnish broadcaster MTV in June that Russia is able to deploy more than a thousand migrants to the border within a few hours.
The law, which will be valid for one year, also allows Finland to consider reopening some of the checkpoints on the European Union’s and NATO’s longest frontier with Russia. Interior Minister Mari Rantanen said after the vote that any such measure will only be deliberated if Finnish security officials deem it possible.
The outlines of the measure were published already in March, but it’s taken time to draft the text and pass it through parliamentary committees, given it conflicts with obligations set in international agreements to accept asylum applications at the border as well as Finland’s constitution.
The bill narrowly received the required majority of five in six to be declared urgent, followed by at least two in three lawmakers voting in favor of the law.
(Adds Prime Minister and Interior Minister comments in 3rd and 5th paragraphs)
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