HELSINKI (Reuters) – The European Union should take measures to help Finland prevent an influx of migrants via Russia, Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said on Friday.
“We are preparing our own legislation but we also need EU measures,” Orpo said after visiting the Nordic country’s border with Russia together with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Finland last year shut its long border with Russia amid a growing number of arrivals from countries including Syria and Somalia, and accused Moscow of weaponising migration against the Nordic nation and the EU, an assertion the Kremlin denies.
Following an example set by Poland and Lithuania on their borders with Belarus, the Finnish government is drafting legislation that would allow border guards to block asylum seekers entering the country from Russia.
(Reporting by Essi Lehto and Anna Ringstrom, editing by Terje Solsvik)
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