Finland completed the first 35 kilometres of a 4.5-metre-high fence it is building on its closed eastern border with Russia, justifying the construction with an alleged influx of migrants.
According to the Finnish Border Guard, the fence will eventually cover 200 kilometres of the total border length of 1,344 kilometres. The deputy commander of the Southeast Finland Border Guard District, Antti Virta, said:
The main purpose of the fence is to control a large mass of people if they are trying to enter from Russia to Finland.
The country is facing growing criticism, not only from Russia but also from outside, for closing the border and building a fence, despite the calm at the closed checkpoints. Finland also joined NATO two years ago in response to the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Russia, meanwhile, denies organising migrant flows, with the government saying it “deeply regrets” Finland’s decision to close checkpoints on its border.
No migrants have arrived since Finland closed the border to passengers at the end of 2023, according to Euractiv. However, the Border Guard, represented by Head of Operations Samuel Siljanen, defended the decision to build the fence.
The border barrier is absolutely necessary to maintain border security. From the Border Guard’s perspective, it improves our ability to perform border surveillance, to act if there’s some kind of disruption at the border or a border incident.
The European Court of Human Rights ordered Finland to justify the indefinite closure of the border. Last year, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Michael O’Flaherty, warned that Finland’s temporary restrictions on asylum applications “would violate international obligations, including the prohibition of refoulement and collective expulsion.”
The fence will be completed by the end of 2026, according to the Finnish Border Guard Service.
