Finland on Friday passed a temporary bill that would allow border agents to turn away asylum seekers at its borders, an escalation in its ongoing dispute with Russia that experts and human rights groups warn will violate international law.
Relations between Finland and Russia, which share an 830-mile border, have sharply deteriorated since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Late last year, Finland closed all land crossings with its neighbor, accusing Russia of trying to weaponize migration. Russian authorities have called the accusations “unsubstantiated.”
Parliament voted 167 to 31 to approve the bill, which would be in place for a year. Because it is an expedited constitutional amendment, it required more than the typical supermajority to pass.
The legislation gives the authorities the power to halt the acceptance of asylum applications at the border for up to a month at a time — and to remove migrants who had already made it into the country in hopes of seeking asylum. Forcing people back over a border, a practice known as “pushbacks,” is illegal under European and international law.
The text had been repeatedly amended since the government handed over a first draft in May that it acknowledged was not in line with Finland’s constitution. Legal experts swiftly warned that the bill also would violate the country’s international obligations, and the U.N. refugee agency said it risked setting a “dangerous precedent.”
Worried about Finland’s human rights responsibilities, lawmakers negotiated heavily over the language, including the means for asylum seekers to appeal and the role of Parliament in applying the law.
But ahead of its passage, the bill appeared to be largely supported by the Finnish public. About 65 percent of Finns said they were in favor of the law, with just 19 percent saying they were opposed, according to a survey commissioned by a prominent Finnish newspaper in late June.
Finland and Russia have a complicated past and have fought several wars throughout history. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Finland broke with decades of military nonalignment to join NATO last year — a move that Moscow warned would be met with “countermeasures.”
Since then, Finnish officials have claimed Moscow is encouraging and helping an influx of migrants to cross the border, in hopes of stoking polarization within the country. More than 1,300 people have crossed the Finnish-Russian border to seek asylum since last summer, according to border authorities, largely coming from third countries in the Middle East and Africa. Russia, however, has denied deliberately shuttling migrants to the Finland border.
The border closures Finland implemented have been effective: Since December, only some 35 migrants have crossed illegally into the country from Russia, according to the Finnish broadcaster Yle. But Finnish authorities claim that migrants are waiting in Russian border towns and cities and would try to cross if the border checkpoints are reopened.
President Alexander Stubb of Finland has accused Russia of trying to “shatter unity in Finland,” according to the local news media, and defended the legislation passed on Friday as necessary to combat future threats to national security.
The measures will not automatically go into effect: They would require the joint approval of the president and government, for a month at a time.
But in a letter last month urging Finnish lawmakers to reject the bill, the Council of Europe’s commissioner for Human Rights, Michael O’Flaherty, wrote that “invocation of national security cannot be used as a carte blanche.”
Analysts and human rights groups have warned that the bill could undermine Finland’s reputation as a liberal nation that respects the rule of law and international conventions.
“This proposal would endanger the rights of people seeking safety and could lead to arbitrariness and violence at the border,” Amnesty International said in a statement in June.
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