Due to the situation at the eastern border, the majority of the reinforcements that the Finnish Border Guard requested from the European Border and Coast Guard Agency Frontex have already arrived in Finland and begin their work alongside the Finnish Border Guard officials on 29 November. The rest of the reinforcements will arrive over the next few days.
The Frontex reinforcements operate alongside the Finnish Border Guard officials to maintain the enhanced border surveillance on our eastern border. The Frontex reinforcements will be allocated for all border guard districts on the eastern border, in other words, for Southeast Finland, North Karelia, Kainuu and Lapland. Officials of the Frontex standing corps always operate under the command of Finnish border guardsmen.
As requested, Frontex has sent 50 officials of the standing corps for two months to the ongoing Frontex JO Terra joint operation on our eastern border. The reinforcements and the technical material sent with them is primarily used in monitoring the terrain border. Furthermore, the Frontex personnel includes a few document investigators as well as data collection interviewers and interpreters.
In addition to standing corps officials, Frontex sends Finland technical material to be used in monitoring the terrain border, such as portable thermographic cameras, patrol vehicles and a vehicle equipped with thermographic camera.
The officials of the standing corps, sent by Frontex, have been transferred to Finland from other ongoing Frontex operations at the external borders of the European Union and from Western Balkans. Some of them have participated in a Frontex operation on the eastern border of Finland even before, whereas border surveillance in terrain in winter conditions is new for others. In addition to the border guard officials recruited by Frontex itself, the Frontex standing corps consists of border surveillance professionals that every EU Member States have provided Frontex. Therefore, the Frontex officials arriving to Finland represent a broad variety of nearly 20 nationalities.
The Finnish Border Guard is prepared to, where necessary, request for additional reinforcements and material from Frontex for border surveillance or, respectively, decrease it already in the coming months.
Concerning media inquiries, please note that interviews of Frontex standing corps officials require a permission from the Finnish Border Guard as well as from Frontex communications unit. The Frontex communications unit can be contacted via [email protected].
