The measure should come into effect on the night of Saturday and last until February 18, Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo announced on Thursday, according to Reuters.
Finland, which recently became a member of the North Atlantic Alliance, shares a 1,340 kilometer long border with Russia, which also serves as the external border of the European Union.
Finnish Interior Minister Mari Rantanen said this week that the number of asylum seekers arriving at border crossings from Russia has increased significantly. According to the Finnish website Yle, the migrants come from, among others, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Turkey.
Petteri Orpo said on Tuesday that Russia does not prevent migrants without valid documents from crossing the border with Finland, on the contrary, according to him, it helps them with transport to the border.
On Wednesday, Finnish President Sauli Niinistö said the increase in the number of migrants arriving at the country’s eastern border appeared to be Russian retaliation for Finland’s defense cooperation with the United States.
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The Vainikkala border crossing is also located on the Finnish-Russian land border, but it is only used for train traffic. Rantanen said the measure would be lifted when the flow of undocumented asylum seekers was stopped.
