150 foreigners were detained in Karelia, who wanted to cross the border of Finland

In Karelia, 150 foreigners were detained for a week, whose Russian visas were expired. They were heading to the Finnish border. This was written by RBC with reference to the press secretary of the governor Karelia Marina Kabatyuk.

The detention of migrants took place from November 15 to 21, but most of them fell on November 18, when Finland closed four border points through which it was possible to get to the country from Russia.

Foreigners were placed in the "place of enforcement of citizens", after checking passports "violations were identified", which ones were not specified. The courts will be held later, migrants will be fined and expelled from Russia, Kabatyuk explained.

According to her, most migrants were detained after November 18.

Crisis on the border of Finland and Russia

Over the past few months, several thousand foreigners who did not have the necessary documents have tried to get to Finland from Russia. These were citizens of Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Turkey. Earlier, the Russian authorities did not miss such citizens to the border, then, without explanation, they ceased to interfere with this. Finland said that Russia was trying to create a migration crisis on the border. Since the beginning of the year on the border with Finland, a record number of statements for asylum was submitted - 335 pieces (data for November 16).

On November 16, the Finnish authorities decided to close four border crossings on the border with Russia - Baalimaa, Nuiyayamaa, Imatra, Vyartsil. From midnight on November 18, they stopped their work. At the same time, the Finnish authorities said they could close the entire eastern border "at any time." In Estonia, a “partial or complete” closing of border checkpoints on the border with Russia was also allowed .

After the four border crossings were closed, foreigners began to go to the open gearbox "Vartius-Lithuania", which is located near Kostomuksha. According to local residents, there were at least 50 people. They reported on thefts of bicycles (foreigners used to cross other traffic points on this type of transport).

The Finnish border guards in the morning on November 19 temporarily closed the movement through the border crossing "Vartius". According to the chief of the border crossing Youko Kinnunen, "from the Russian side people pushed people into the barrier and closed the border barriers behind them"

In the evening of the same day, Kostomukkshi authorities said that they created the heating point for migrants, and on November 20, Karelia, Arthur Parfenchikov, announced his disbandment.

• After the Russian large -scale invasion of Ukraine, Finland tightened the conditions for entering the country for Russians. The owners of Schengen visas in Finland, as a rule, are not allowed, a residence permit in the European Union, permanent residence or citizenship of the EU countries is needed. In some cases, transit to the airport is possible.
• Finland also introduced the ban on the entry of cars registered in Russia - after the European Commission published an explanation to the sanctions regime, which states that entry into the EU cars with Russian numbers can be equated with imports prohibited by the sanction regime.