A controversial law allowing Finland to turn asylum seekers away at its long eastern border with Russia came into force Monday, despite criticism from human rights bodies that it violates international migration law and sets a dangerous precedent.
The new law, proposed by the right-wing government and passed by lawmakers with an overwhelming majority, seeks to tackle what Prime Minister Petteri Orpo has called Russia’s “weaponization” of migration.
Finland says it has faced an increase in asylum seekers from the Middle East and Africa and blames Moscow for stoking the influx — which the Kremlin has repeatedly denied. In April, Finland closed its 1,340 kilometer border with Russia indefinitely.
“Instrumentalized migration is one way that Russia can put pressure on and affect the security and social stability of Finland and the EU,” the Finnish interior ministry told POLITICO. “This new act prepares Finland for the possibility that Russia may continue to exert pressure for a long time and in more serious and larger-scale ways.”
The deportation act would, in the case of a national emergency, allow a temporary exception to the constitution under which border guards could block asylum seekers from entering the country and deprive them of the right to appeal.
Poland, Lithuania and Latvia adopted similar laws in 2021, after Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko orchestrated a border crisis by attracting migrants from the Middle East and driving them towards the EU in retaliation against sanctions imposed by Brussels.
Human rights groups have criticized the deportation bill, arguing that it goes against the Finnish constitution, Helsinki’s international commitments, and EU law.
“The rule of law in Finland has been shaken,” Pia Lindfors, director of the Finnish Refugee Advice Center, told POLITICO.
“A green light to border violence”
The principle of non-refoulement in international law forbids sending asylum seekers back to countries where they may face persecution, torture, or inhumane or degrading treatment.
The EU’s Migration Pact, agreed this year and set to enter force in 2026, introduced a crisis provision to make it easier for countries to turn back people encouraged to migrate to the EU illegally by third-country governments.
The main criticism of the law by human rights groups is that it enables pushbacks — in which migrants are physically forced back over a border. Pushbacks are illegal under both the European Convention on Human Rights and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.
“This law makes it possible to do pushbacks, which are always illegal,” Frank Johansson, director of Amnesty International Finland, told POLITICO. “It goes much further than crisis regulation in the new EU migration pact; and it gives a green light to violence on the borders,” he said, adding that the law “should have never been enacted.”
Migration authorities usually assess whether someone needs protection, through an interview that can last several hours. Under this law, border guards would be expected to fill that role, Johansson said.
“If there is a young homosexual man coming from Russia, how will the border guards assess that it’s risky for him to go back? It doesn’t show on the outside,” said Johansson, referring to President Vladimir Putin’s crackdown on the LGBTQ+ community.
Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Michael O’Flaherty had earlier expressed concerns over the the then-draft law’s compatibility with human rights and urged against it being adopted.
The law “could set a destabilizing precedent, at a time when the global asylum system is already under great pressure,” O’Flaherty wrote in a letter last month to the speaker of the Finnish parliament.
European approach
President Alexander Stubb said that the law has the support of other EU countries after last week’s meeting of the European Political Community in the U.K.
“Many people came to say that the instrument looks good, especially the leaders of the Baltic countries. And it may be that they go out and copy it,” said Stubb.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen addressed the Eastern border question in a keynote speech last week to the European Parliament before it voted to back her for a second term.
“Russia is luring migrants from Yemen up north and pushing them deliberately against the Finnish border,” von der Leyen said, proposing to triple the number of European border- and coastguards to 30,000.
The Commission said it will analyze the Finnish law to see if it is in line with EU law.
“Member states have an obligation to protect their external borders. They are the ones best placed to define how they do this in practice, in full compliance with fundamental rights,” said spokesperson Christian Wigand.
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