‘s Moscow correspondent Heikki Heiskanen saw how bicycles were distributed to asylum seekers trying to get to Finland about six kilometers from the border.
The Vaalimaa and Niirala border crossings were opened only on Thursday morning, and already in the evening ‘s correspondent witnessed the distribution of bicycles to migrants near the border.
Moscow Correspondent Heikki Heiskanen had heard that bikes were being distributed to migrants near the Vaalimaa border crossing. So he started driving from Vyborg towards Vaalimaa, and reached the first actual checkpoint about six kilometers from the border.
In front of the checkpoint, Heiskanen saw bicycles being distributed from the back of a van to at least four or five young men who were on their way to Finland.
– Those bicycles were actually distributed right there in front of the checkpoint, on the roadside, Heiskanen specifies.
In total, Heiskanen spent about 3.5 hours at the checkpoint, during which he witnessed how the distribution of bicycles to migrants continued. There were about 30–40 cyclists in total.
They were mostly men, but we also saw at least one woman, Heiskanen once.
– Cycling seemed a bit difficult. Not everyone had very good bicycles, such children’s models, and not everyone seemed to be naturally comfortable with cycling either.
One peculiarity was that the wheels, most obviously, were recycled.
According to Heiskanen, it seemed that the bikes were first driven towards the border, and then the man brought them back in a van. However, he emphasizes that he was not able to follow the flow of migrants all the way to the border.
Heiskanen says that he did not see how many who tried to cross the border were turned away. At least one person returned from the border station on a bicycle, so he had apparently been turned away.