The flow of refugees from Ukraine to the neighbouring EU countries Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania has been strong over the past few weeks, requiring border authorities in these countries to significantly increase their personnel and equipment resources on their common border sections with Ukraine.
To help the people fleeing from the war in Ukraine as effectively as possible and to implement border control in the European Union, the Finnish Border Guard is actively involved in operations coordinated by the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) to support border control in these countries.
Because of the events in Ukraine, Frontex has so far received a call for support from Romania, to which they are currently sending additional border control resources. This means approximately 150 border guards and 45 patrol vehicles. Most of them will be transported to Romania from Frontex operations under way on other European border sections, but one third of the additional personnel has been requested as additional resources to be deployed from the Member States. As requested by Frontex, the Finnish Border Guard will send one additional patrol specialised in land border surveillance with the necessary equipment to the Romania–Ukraine border. The patrol will start working in Romania in the middle of this week.
As agreed in the annual planning of Frontex operations, the Finnish Border Guard is already working in Romania. There is one dog patrol involved in off-road border surveillance tasks and one border inspector at the Bucharest airport.
The Finnish Border Guard is prepared to send additional border control personnel and equipment resources to the EU countries neighbouring Ukraine, depending on how much they request support from Frontex and how much Frontex continues to request resources from the Member States for this purpose.
Frontex and the host states are responsible for communicating information on the operation.
Further information: Headquarters of the Finnish Border Guard, Pietari Vuorensola, Senior Officer, [email protected], tel. +358 295 421 000 (switchboard).
