COMMENTARY: Asylum-seeking defectors

By Perttu Kauppinen
     
      At its southern end, the long border between Finland and Russia is one of the world's most closely controlled frontier zones. There are barbed-wire fences, raked gravel strips, electronic motion detectors, cameras, and dogs.
      Not dissimilar, actually, to the situation just over twenty years ago between the two Germanies.
      And there are also defectors, naturally.
     
This year, some three hundred Afghanis have tried to cross on foot from Russia into Finland.
      The reason is economic dire straits. The recession has taken away their livelihood in Moscow.
      As with the East German defectors in their time, it is akin to a lottery win for the asylum-seeker to get caught only on the Western side of the frontier.
      Those who are picked up on the Russian side are put in a prison cell, while those caught on the Finnish side find themselves in reception centres to enjoy, well, not perhaps the fabled bananas of West Germany, but at least the highest supplementary benefits of any country in the European Union.
     
The Finnish Border Guard may well curse under their breath at the thought that the expensive monitoring equipment only buys a quicker access for the asylum-seeker to the fruits of the state's generosity.
      In order to stop those who try to get into Finland by plane, efforts are made in the countries of departure, in practice in Turkey, where Finnish border guards have trained the airlines' staff to haul Chechens in search of asylum off flights to Helsinki.
      There is certainly good cause for this, for rather more than half of those Afghanis and Chechens who have arrived this year have no grounds for being granted asylum in Finland.
      The Border Guard can do nothing about the EU, however. All the peoples of the Caucasus can get to Finland without much obstacle, provided that they are smart enough to buy tickets for the ferries from Sweden.
     
The problems facing the guards on the frontier highlight the schizophrenic nature of Finland's immigration policy.
      If a person merits asylum in Finland, then one assumes he merits it whether or not he manages to slip past the border patrols.
      If on the other hand it is worth controlling Finland's borders, then it should presumably be possible to control access, even if those who seek to cross do happen to be living under economic hardship.
     
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 24.11.2009


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Government prepares changes to asylum policy (3.6.2009)
  Processing times of asylum applications drawn out (27.5.2009)
  Amendments planned in supplementary benefits for asylum seekers (24.11.2009)
  Finland advises Turks on how to recognise potential asylum seekers (20.11.2009)
  Age testing of asylum seekers to be included in law (13.11.2009)

See also:
  Electronic surveillance grows at Russian border as border guard strength is cut (6.10.2009)

Links:
  Finnish Border Guard
  Finnish Immigration Service: Refugees and Asylum Seekers