Border Guard concerned about increased direct flights between Finland and China

Illegal entry into Schengen zone could grow; Border Guard to set up liaison in Beijing embassy

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The constantly increasing direct air connections between Finland and China have become a cause for concern for Finland's Guard. The direct flights are turning Helsinki into a more important hub for travel between Asia and Europe, which means that there could be a considerable potential for increased illegal immigration, and even trafficking in humans.
      To help fight the problem, the Border Guard has decided to send a special liaison officer to work at the Finnish Embassy in Beijing.
     
"There is concrete evidence that already at present there is illegal immigration from there to the Schengen zone", says Lt.-Colonel Martti Sarasmaa of the general staff of the Border Guard.
      The Border Guard representative will go to the Beijing Embassy in April. Previously, there have been Finnish Border Guard representatives mainly in Russia. The representative will subject prospective travellers to Finland to close scrutiny, as they apply for visas to enter Finland.
      In recent years Finland has woken up to the realisation that it has become an increasingly important hub for air travel between Europe and Asia, and as such, it finds itself in the front line in fighting illegal immigration and human trafficking into the Schengen zone.
      The most important reason for this is the increase in services to China by the Finnish national carrier Finnair, which operates a total of 18 weekly flights to and from China with 300-seat MD-11 aircraft, which fly at almost full capacity. This means that the total number of passengers every week is in the thousands.
     
"The flow is aimed via Finland to other parts of the Schengen zone, and Finland needs to make its own contribution on this issue. We cannot just think about how much illegal migration is directed at Finland - we must also think about the migration directed at other countries, via Finland", says Matti Sarasmaa.
      This means that in effect Finland is responsible for guarding the integrity of the borders of all Schengen countries.
     
One indication of the increase in Finnair services to China is that the Chinese are the second-largest group of travellers to cross the Schengen border at Helsinki-Vantaa International Airport, right after the Finns themselves. About 300,000 Chinese pass through the airport each year.
      As for concrete evidence of violations, Sarasmaa mentions the decision by Vantaa District Court just over a week ago, in which a 44-year-old man from Hong Kong was sentenced to imprisonment for human smuggling via Helsinki-Vantaa Airport to other parts of Europe. The scam involved the use of forged passports, cover-up stories, and even false spectacles.
      The man was seen as a member of an organised criminal group, who worked as a tour guide of sorts for Chinese, each of whom had paid about EUR 13,000 for the trip, which is an astonishingly high price by Chinese standards.
      Janne Piironen, head of the Helsinki section of the Border Guard, says that in the cases that have come to light it is very frequent for the criminals in question to cover their tracks. For illegal arrivals from China, Finland has been a stepping stone to other places.
      "The organisations have good local knowledge. The groups are in Helsinki for a day or two and do not buy their tickets to their ultimate destination until they are at the airport, so the trail can run cold."
     
One current trend in illegal immigration is that of "masking", says Major Ilkka Herranen of the Border Guard.
      "The trip is masked as a perfectly legal tourist trip, but in reality, people are coming in order to stay.
      Most of the time the final destination in Europe is a job at a clothing, catering, or domestic business run by a relative. The sex business is a very small part of the problem.


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