Finland enacts legislation to combat instrumentalised migration

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.

Act prepares Finland for worse situations 

According to public authorities, the threat of instrumentalised migration on Finland's eastern border, which began in the autumn of 2023, remains high. The border crossing points on the land border between Finland and Russia are closed until further notice.

Instrumentalised migration is one way that Russia can put pressure on and affect the security and social stability of Finland and the EU. Finland’s eastern border is the longest external border that both the EU and NATO have with Russia. This new act prepares Finland for the possibility that Russia may continue to exert pressure for a long time and in more serious and larger-scale ways.

This act is what is called an exceptive act. Exceptive acts may be used to enact limited exceptions to the Constitution for compelling reasons. The new act takes into account the situation of people in a particularly vulnerable position. During parliamentary proceedings, the act was supplemented with provisions that strengthen protection under the law.

Other possible means to combat the threat of instrumentalised migration were assessed during the legislative drafting process. Based on the assessment, other means would not be effective in preventing efforts to put pressure on Finland through instrumentalised migration, because current national and international law lack sufficient procedures. Finland's goal is to find EU-level solutions to combat instrumentalised migration.