Illegal Immigrants From Belarus Sent To Border With Finland

• 27.11.2023, 8:27

The Russians are helping with this.

Migrants are heading to the Finnish border after unsuccessful attempts to enter the EU from Belarus. The Finnish channel Yle spoke with three asylum seekers who are already in the country. They confirm that the Russian side promotes migration.

Syrian Moayad Salami spoke about how they were received at the border. According to him, in several stages he and five other people were taken to the border, where, after the visa revocation procedure, they were given the opportunity to cross the border on bicycles, forbidden to return to Russia.

Salami also said that on social media, migrants who unsuccessfully tried to cross from Belarus to Lithuania, Latvia and Poland are discussing options to get to the Russian-Finnish border. According to him, he also heard at the border that if Finland completely stops the work of its checkpoints, then migrants will be sent to the border with other countries: Norway, Estonia and Latvia.

Another illegal immigrant, Ryan Alhariri, has already made this journey. According to him, first he came from Syria through Russia to Belarus, where he tried to get into Poland and Lithuania, but he failed. However, then he heard that the border with Finland was opening and went there. First he drove to St. Petersburg, and then to the border, where, like the first hero of the report, he received a bicycle for money and was sent towards the Finnish checkpoint.

Another migrant, Kamal Tawil, also told the story of the bicycles.

In recent weeks, Finland has closed all checkpoints on the border with Russia, except for one, the northernmost one. The flow of asylum seekers at Finnish checkpoints has increased since the autumn. A total of 950 people were accepted.