On 16 July, the President of the Republic approved the bill for the Act on Temporary Measures to Combat Instrumentalised Migration. The aim of the act is to improve border security and ensure that Finland has effective means at its disposal to combat instrumentalised migration, which is being used to put pressure on Finland. The aim is also to prepare for more serious instances of instrumentalised migration.
The act lays down the conditions under which a government plenary session can decide to restrict the reception of applications for international protection in a limited area on Finland’s national border and in its immediate vicinity. Such a decision would be made following cooperation with the President of the Republic.
Applying the act requires highly exceptional and pressing reasons. Doing so always requires knowledge or a justified suspicion that a foreign state is attempting to influence Finland in a way that poses a serious threat to Finland’s sovereignty and national security and no other means are sufficient to resolve the situation. A decision to apply the act may be made for up to one month at a time.
If the act is applied, applications for international protection would not, apart from certain exceptions, be received in the area subject to the restriction, and instrumentalised migrants would be prevented from entering the country. A migrant who has already entered the country would be removed from the country without delay and instructed to travel to a place where applications for international protection are being received.
The act will enter into force on 22 July 2024 and will remain in force for one year.
Finland enacts legislation to combat instrumentalised migration - Ministry of the Interior (intermin.fi)
