Take them, Suomi beautiful

The Finnish media accuse Russia of the fact that the flow of migrants from the east has sharply increased

The Finnish news agency STT was the other day that the Russian authorities, apparently, encourage migrants who seek to get to Finland, providing them with help and helping in the accelerated passage of procedures on the border. The STT correspondent , who visited the border areas of the Murmansk region and Karelia, said, on the basis of anonymity, an employee of the Federal Border Service (FPS) of Russia said. According to him, such actions are coordinated by his department with the FSB and local administrations. The advantage of migrant families with children have an advantage. According to Finnish journalists, migrants who want to cross the border quickly, the hotels are scored in the border Russian settlements, starting from the village of Alakurtti about 70 km from the border.

Messages that the Russian side deliberately sends the stream of immigrants to Finland, without separating refugees from economic migrants, in the Finnish press recently are very frequent. Reporters who visited the border crossing of Salla report dozens of cars with migrants waiting for the opportunity to cross the border and submit a petition for asylum. According to eyewitnesses, on the Russian side, the line moves relatively quickly, it is obvious that the border guards do not repair special obstacles. Suspicions about the fact that the strengthening of the flow of migrants heading to Finland was partly the result of the efforts of the Russian authorities was the recently expressed by the Finnish parliament , Yussi Khalla-Aho and a member of the European Parliament Petri Sarvamaa .

As the publication Iltalehti notes , Finnish security experts are not so categorical. Some of them believe that we are talking about the intentional spread of rumors from the Russian side. They are designed to play the role of the political “horror story”, hinting at Finland, and through it and the rest of the European Union, that in the conditions of the migrant crisis, Russia has the possibilities of an “asymmetric response” to a protracted, according to the Russian authorities, the regime of Western sanctions against Moscow. At the same time, what was happening already caused a reaction in the government circles of Finland: the Cabinet of Ministers is going to consider the draft tightening of the border rules (the "Act on the protection of the border"). The document provides that persons who have arrived from the so -called safe countries, among which Russia is included and intended to ask for asylum in Finland, will not be considered in need of defense, which means they will not be able to stay in the country.

The Finnish media accuse Russia of the fact that the flow of migrants from the east has sharply increased

The situation for Radio Liberty is commented by the chief editor of the Finnish information agency STT Mika Petratersson .

Hotels on the Russian side of the border are full of people who want to get to Finland and stay there

- In addition to the evidence of the Russian border guard, with whom your correspondent spoke, do you have additional confirmations that the authorities of a neighboring country encourage the movement of migrants to Finland?

- We have no independent confirmation of this information, but in Finland this has already become well -known. Hotels on the Russian side of the border are crowded with people who want to get to Finland and stay there. They get permission to cross the border without problems. Representatives of the Russian authorities organize this stream. These are people who have the right to decide whether to pass through the border those who want to get here.

- How intense is this intense stream? How many refugees crosses the Russian-Finnish border every day?

- Every day is different. But in any case, these are dozens, from 20 to 80 people daily.

- Are these mainly refugees from the Middle East?

- No, from various regions. Not only the Middle East or North Africa, but also, for example, people from the Congo, Pakistan, Afghanistan and so on. According to our information, among them there are a lot of economic migrants who have worked in Russia before for more than one year. Now, in search of a better life, they are trying to get to Europe.

- That is, we are not talking about refugees fleeing the wars, which, in particular, in Syria and Iraq?

- There are a lot of people, and I probably have no right to draw some unambiguous conclusions. But a lot says that among the new arrivals there are many people who have lived in Russia for years. They recognize this themselves, we talked with them. They tell how they worked there, that it is not so easy to rent an apartment in Moscow and other large Russian cities in Moscow and other Russian cities. And in search of a more prosperous life, they come here.

- What is the reaction of the Finnish authorities to this situation?

- This issue will be discussed in the near future at a meeting of our Minister of Internal Affairs with his Russian colleague. And at the end of this week in St. Petersburg, negotiations of the heads of government of Finland and Russia - Yukhi Sipil and Dmitry Medvedev should be negotiated, and there, as far as I know, this topic will also be affected.

- In the Finnish press there were references to the possibility of tightening the rules for providing asylum in the country. Is that so?

- No. We must not forget that there are international agreements that oblige their participants, including Finland, to comply with certain rules in this area, and unilaterally we cannot change them. Yes, our authorities check everyone who wants to ask for asylum, his situation, the circumstances of arrival, determine whether there are legal grounds to leave this person in Finland.

- Did the growth of migrant flow change the atmosphere in the country?

- Very much. First of all, a small, but very active and loudly declare minority, which requires closing the boundaries, appeared. These are inelerant people, many of them in connection with immigration are afraid for their jobs - in general, this is a situation similar to many European countries, which are now in the center of the migrant crisis. The active minority that I said about is extremely negative about the newly arrived.

- And most?

- Most, I think, is just worried. Also because the economy of Finland is not in the best condition now. We have quite high unemployment, forecasts do not portend noticeable economic growth. All this together does not contribute to optimism regarding the future. But at the same time, according to my observations, the majority of the Finns are tolerant and hospitable in relation to migrants - if the newcomers show a desire to observe our laws, live and work among us, accepting Western ideas and values. There are doubts about the latter. Especially a lot talk about the attitude of some migrants to women and their rights, ”says Mika Petersson , chief editor of the Finnish information agency, the Finnish information agency.

Most Finns are tolerant and hospitable in relation to migrants - if the newcomers show a desire to adapt to our lifestyle

There are no comments on the Russian side about the situation on the Finnish border. In the last months of last year, however, thousands of migrants arrived from Russia to Norway in the area of the polar city of Kirkenes. According to Norwegian laws, you can cross the border only on any means of movement, so those who wanted to get into Norway bought bicycles in the border Russian cities massively. Passing the border point, they threw bicycles as unnecessary. However, the Norwegian authorities have recently tightened the rules for considering petitions about refuge, as a result of which most of the newcomers were sent back to Russia. In Norway itself , bicycles were collected for them so that migrants crossed the border in the opposite direction on the same vehicle on which they arrived.