It was informed that the Finnish government plans to amend the border legislation to allow the construction of barriers on the eastern border with russia to strengthen preparedness against hybrid threats amid russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Source. This was announced by the government, Reuters reports.
Details. The government's amendments to the law include a proposal to enable concentrating the reception of asylum applications only at specific points of entry. According to existing EU rules, migrants have the right to ask for asylum at any given entry point to an EU member country.
“Later on, the government will decide on border barriers to the critical zones on the eastern border, on the basis of the Finnish Border Guard's assessment,” minister of internal affairs Krista Mikkonen said in a statement.
Finland has a history of wars with russia, although currently the forest-covered border zone between the two countries is marked merely with signs and plastic lines for most of its 1,300-km (810-mile – transl.) length.
The Finnish government has rushed to strengthen border security as it fears russia could attempt to put pressure on Finland by sending asylum seekers to its borders – as Belarus has done on the Polish border last year.