Finland Finnish parliament approves controversial law against migrants

In the fight against so-called instrumentalized migration by Russia, the EU country Finland has passed a new law. This will make it easier to turn away migrants at the border with Russia.

The Finnish parliament voted with the required majority in favor of a controversial government proposal. This gives the conservative-right-wing government the power to turn back asylum seekers directly at the border without processing their applications.

President Alexander Stubb still has to sign the so-called rejection law before it comes into force. It will then apply temporarily for one year.

A five-sixths majority was required to approve the emergency motion for the emergency law, which was narrowly achieved with 167 votes in favor and 31 against. Demonstrators disrupted the long parliamentary debate before the vote. They shouted from the stands that Finland was destroying the rule of law and that no one was illegal.

Finnish legal experts are of the opinion that the law is incompatible with EU law and, in part, with the Finnish constitution. Supporters, on the other hand, believe it is essential to prevent external actors from using migration as a means of exerting hostile influence on Finland and the EU.

Instrumentalized migration by Russia

Finland borders Russia over a length of 1340 kilometers. In the fall of 2023, the Finnish Border Guard registered a sharp increase in the number of asylum seekers at the crossings, mainly from the Middle East, who entered from Russia without the necessary documents and applied for asylum in Finland.

Helsinki then accused Moscow of instrumentalizing migration and deliberately bringing these people to the border in order to cause problems for the Nordic EU and NATO country. The Kremlin denied this.

In response to the situation, the Finnish government had already declared the border closed at the end of 2023 and repeatedly extended this measure, most recently indefinitely in April. Among other things, this also means that migrants cannot apply for asylum at the border crossings.