Electronic surveillance grows at Russian border as border guard strength is cut
Surge in unauthorised crossings by citizens of Afghanistan
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An alarm rings at the situation room of the Southeast Finland Guard in Imatra. The bell means that someone is moving around in the area.
Senior Border Guard officer Joni Kalkasmaa gets the exact location of the alarm on his screen, as well as a picture from a surveillance camera. A single person is seen - a member of the Border Guard who is testing the new devices.
If an unknown person had been in the picture, the entire arsenal of the Border Guard would have been deployed, including dogs, helicopters, and land vehicles.
Supervision of the border is increasingly being handled by surveillance equipment, with personnel watching a computer screen instead of patrolling in the forest.
A key reason for the changes is the decrease in personnel. The number of employees has had to be cut for budgetary reasons, and traffic at border crossings has increased by 75 per cent this decade.
Pasi Kostamovaara, commander of the Border Guard unit of Southeast Finland, says that increased work at border crossings has meant that fewer personnel resources have been available to monitoring the border itself.
Improving technology guarantees that Finland’s eastern border is one of the most closely guarded in the world. Kostamovaara says that the national border is being monitored at least as well as before.
The Border Guard does not want to reveal how big a part of the border is electronically monitored, but the proportion is growing constantly. The technology is most used on the 200 southernmost kilometres of the border.
However, there are no plans for electronic surveillance of the entire length of the border, and a dog patrol is still the most important tool of the Border Guard.
“There is no need to build a new electronic Berlin Wall”, says Harri Ahonen, the systems chief of the Border Guard.
Ahonen was part of a project aimed at developing the next generation surveillance system at the border.
The number of mobile and wireless cameras and sensors are on the increase. The devices are being developed in such a way that it will be easier to distinguish an illegal entry from, say, a bear moving in the fog.
Also under consideration are the use for surveillance purposes of unmanned flying drones weighing less than 115 kilos.
The technology has proven useful because an exceptionally large number of Afghanis have tried to cross the border; 21 have made it to Finland, but nearly 200 have been stopped already on the Russian side.
Pasi Kostamovaara says that pressure that is being put on Finland at its eastern border has doubled.
He feels that the flow of Afghanis is the most significant phenomenon of illegal entry involving a single nationality.
Previously those entering Finland illegally from Russia have hoped to use Finland as a stepping-stone to the rest of the Schengen zone. However, now the Afghanis want to stay in Finland.
“It appears that messages have been sent from within the Afghan community in Finland, that people are treated well here”, Kostamovaara says. “The arrow points in this direction - even to the extent that some try to reach Finland through the Baltic countries.”
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 6.10.2009 - TODAY |
 Electronic surveillance grows at Russian border as border guard strength is cut |
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