Finland plans to erect a fence on part of its border with Russia. A majority of parliament is according to Finnish media before the arrival of the fence in order to gain more control over migrants from Russia. Finland’s border control service is also in favor of a fence, which must cost millions of euros. Construction will take about four years and will begin shortly. The fence covers about 260 of the more than 1,300 kilometer long border with Russia. Barbed wire will be placed on top of the meter-high barrier to make it more difficult for migrants to climb over it.
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Finland is part of the European Schengen zone of open borders with other Member States, allowing free movement of goods and people. However, those countries can close the external borders. The Finnish government is forced to do this in order to gain more control over the border with Russia, because there have been concerns for some time about Russians fleeing their country because of the recently announced military service call. Reservists and other residents with military experience have recently tried to leave Russia for fear of having to fight in Ukraine. In addition, Helsinki fears that Russia will use illegal migrants as a political blackmail tool.
Last year, several European countries accused Belarus of recruiting migrants in the Middle East before sending them to Poland, where a huge makeshift camp was set up on the border in the icy primeval forest on the border with Belarus. According to member states, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko used the migrants as a means of blackmail, in order to sow divisions between EU member states. Poland eventually cleared the camp, where the migrants slept for days in appalling conditions.