Frontex to continue support at eastern border until summer

The European Border and Coast Guard Agency, Frontex will continue the ongoing support at Finland´s eastern border until at least the summer, said Finnish Border Guard in a press release on Tuesday.

The Finnish Border Guard reached an agreement with the Frontex, to extend the targeted personnel and material support for the border beyond the two-month support period, which was earlier scheduled to end on January 24.

Following the request sent by the Finnish Border Guard to Frontex, the current personnel support, consisting of about 50 permanent staff members, will be maintained at about one-third of its strength, at least until the summer.

The personnel allocated for continued support will initially be directed to the Southeast Finland, North Karelia, and Kainuu Border Guard Districts.

In addition to personnel, the continued support includes technical material in the form of patrol vehicles and technical equipment used in the surveillance of the border areas.

Apart from the specifically agreed and targeted permanent Frontex staff for the eastern border, the Finnish Border Guard will also be supported in the coming months by Frontex personnel, as per the previously agreed annual plan, starting from January 24.

This support will include a few border control document investigation experts at the eastern border and four border control document investigation experts at Helsinki Airport.

When requesting the continuation of support, the Finnish Border Guard, in collaboration with Frontex, has assessed various factors influencing the extent of the resources provided for border control.

These factors include the adequacy and readiness of Finnish national border control resources in terms of personnel, the potential changes in the border situation, and the urgent personnel resource needs requested in other Frontex operations.

The Finnish Border Guard is prepared to rapidly increase the level of personnel and material support in collaboration with Frontex, if the situation of illegal border crossings significantly changes in the coming weeks and months.

Finnish Border Guard earlier in mid-January strengthened security measures at the eastern border to check influx of asylum seekers from Russia.

The Finnish government on January 11 decided that the border crossing points on the land border between Finland and Russia will remain closed until 11 February 2024.

The government on December 14 decided to close all land border with Russia.

The government on December 12 decided to resume two border crossing points at eastern border from December 14.

The government on November 28 decided to close the all the border crossing points with Russia from November 30 against the backdrop of influx of the increasing number of asylum seekers.

Earlier, Finland closed three more border crossing points- Kuusamo, Salla and Vartius- at the eastern border early November 24.

​The government took the decision on November 22.

But entry into Finland at the eastern border has continued despite earlier restrictions.

Earlier on November 18, Finland closed four border crossing points- at Vaalimaa, Nuijamaa, Imatra and Niirala at eastern border.

The government on November 16, decided to close part of Finland's eastern border with Russia.

The government on November 15 at a meeting decided that measures to ensure border security will be taken following the rapid increase in illegal entry at the eastern border.

Earlier on November 14, the Ministry of the Interior said, the government may decide to restrict cross-border traffic or to close border crossing points at eastern border with Russia.