Finland bans Russian arrivals on bicycles
Finnish border guards say that they will no longer allow cyclists from neighboring Russia into the country after a ban on incoming cars with Russian license plates was imposed in September.
This was reported by Yle, Ukrinform saw.
In recent days, changes have been noted at the Finnish-Russian border in terms of vehicles that the foreigners use to cross into Finland.
According to the Deputy Commander of the Border Guard Service for Southeast Finland Jukka Lukkari, illegal migrants were increasingly trying to enter Finland by bicycle.
"Over the last week, there were about 30 such cases. This is a thing that is obviously spreading," he said.
Lukkari adds that in the past, people cycling across the border used to do so for short local trips.
"Now people were trying to cross the border without the necessary paperwork, with no working bicycle lights or helmets," he said.
The decision to ban such crossing was a result of risk assessment. Since last Thursday, people have not been able to cross into Finland from Russia by bicycle through any of the border crossings in the southeast of the country.
"From Finland's perspective, it is quite justified to focus control on road transport. This will help better control the flow across the border," Luccari said.
The Russian media were the first to report that Finland no longer allows cyclists from the Russian Federation.
The ban on the entry of cars with Russian license plates was put into effect in September.
As Ukrinform reported earlier, the border guards in Finland commissioned a 3-km long test section of the border fence in the town of Pelkola in Imatra, on the border with Russia.
Photo: Antro Valo / Yle