2023-11-25 00:15:00
The EU border protection agency Frontex will send officials to the Finnish-Russian border at Finland’s request. The reason is a sharp increase in the number of migrants there. The EU assumes that the Kremlin plays a role in this.
The development at the EU’s easternmost external border is alarming and Russia’s instrumentalization of migrants is “shameful,” the EU Commission said through spokeswoman Anitta Hipper, who also took the opportunity to point out that Frontex is now supporting the Finnish border guards. This is regarding border protection measures – and, given the extremely low temperatures, also regarding caring for arriving migrants.
This shows that the EU can act united when problems arise at the external borders, says Frontex spokesman Piotr Switalski. “Frontex plans to deploy 50 additional border guards and other personnel as well as deploy operational assets to reinforce Finland’s border.” The first officers will arrive on Wednesday and ten are already deployed at the Finnish borders, said Switalski.
“Putin’s goal is to destroy the EU”
This time the EU reacted quickly. Apparently they were prepared for such a scenario of a so-called hybrid threat once morest a member state.
In fact, EU Interior Commissioner Ylva Johansson had been warning regarding this for a long time:
We shouldn’t be naive: Putin’s goal is to destroy the EU. He will try to attack us where we are vulnerable. And that brings us quickly to the topic of migration.
Johansson continued that we had already experienced that in Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko was instrumentalizing refugees in order to destabilize Poland and the EU. “We cannot rule out that Moscow will try to do the same. That’s why we have to prepare and examine what role Frontex might play in such a situation.”
Poland rejected Frontex support in 2021
Meanwhile, the current situation on the 1,300-kilometer-long border between Russia and Finland is reminiscent of that in 2021. At that time, Poland, Latvia and Lithuania accused Russia’s ally Belarus of smuggling migrants to their borders.
At that time, around 4,000 asylum seekers were stranded in no man’s land on the Polish-Belarusian border. When Poland used its security forces to prevent people from entering the country in freezing winter temperatures, massive human rights violations occurred. At the time, the Polish government rigorously rejected support from Frontex.
Matthias Reiche, ARD Brussels, tagesschau, November 24th, 2023 11:50 p.m
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