HELSINKI, July 13, (AP): Finnish lawmakers on Friday narrowly approved a controversial bill that will allow border guards to turn away third-country migrants attempting to enter from neighboring Russia and reject their asylum applications because Helsinki says Moscow is orchestrating an influx of migrants to the border.
The government’s bill, meant to introduce temporary measures to curb migrants from entering the Nordic nation, is a response to what Finland sees as "hybrid warfare” by Russia. It believes Moscow is funneling undocumented migrants to the two countries’ border.
The temporary law, valid for one year, was approved by 167 lawmakers - the minimum needed for it to pass in the 200-seat Eduskunta, or Parliament. Lawmakers of the Left Alliance and the Green League were among the 31 who voted against the bill.
Citing national security, Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s center-right government had said the law was needed to tackle Russia’s maneuvers of deliberately ushering migrants to the normally heavily guarded Russia-Finland border zone that is also the European Union’s external border to the north.
Opponents, including several academics, legal experts and human rights groups, say it clashes with the Constitution of Finland, international rights commitments set by the United Nations and pledges by the EU and international treaties signed by Finland.
Michael O’Flaherty, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, had earlier expressed concern about the draft law and urged against its adoption.
"The Commissioner emphasises that the relationship between national security and human rights is not a zero-sum game,” a Council of Europe statement said in June. "The Commissioner also raises concerns that the (Finnish) draft law, if adopted, would set a worrying precedent for other countries and for the global asylum system.”