Human smugglers say they have contracts with Russian border officials.
reached two smugglers by phone, who spoke of close cooperation when arranging asylum seekers from Russia across the border to Finland.
Russia’s border with Finland is controlled by a border guard under the FSB, the country’s security service. Smugglers refer to the authorities working at the border as “police”.
– Yes, there is an agreement with the police, says one smuggler to .
Both persons interviewed by describe the activity in a similar way.
– We’ll take him [turvapaikanhakijan] From St. Petersburg to the border. The police take care of the visa process, leaving the country and stamping the passport, the interviewee says by phone.
For this article, used exceptional data acquisition. The journalist appeared in an undercover role as a person who said he wanted to help his brother in Russia get to Finland quickly.
Conversations with the smuggler were held in Arabic.
has also spoken with asylum seekers waiting in Russia, who have paid for transport to smugglers. Their stories support the smugglers’ description of their activities.
Smugglers have deals with the police
According to the smugglers, the Russian border authority cooperates with them for a fee. It’s about organized activity and corruption.
has not been able to confirm the information provided by the smugglers from independent sources.
Part of the speech can also be market speech. Smugglers want new asylum seekers to transport and also compete with other smugglers.
This is how one interviewee said, “dealing with the police”.
Only some of the smugglers have a deal. If it is not there, the smuggler has to pay bribes to the officials.
– The size of the bribe is between 1,000 and 2,000 dollars. But if the smuggler is unprofessional, it can lead to a situation where they can be abused or otherwise mistreated.
“We arrived in Finland on Tuesday”
At least a couple of hundred asylum seekers have arrived at Finland’s eastern border in recent days.
has found several videos on social media where asylum seekers say they are going to Finland.
The video below is from the Telegram messaging service.
The young men appearing in the video claim to have just arrived in Finland. At the end of the video, the man talking to the camera thanks the smuggler who arranged for them to reach the border.
– We arrived safely in Finland on Tuesday. This is your party, thank you very much!
However, the speaker probably just thinks he is in Finland after passing through one border check, but judging by the surroundings, he is still in the Russian border zone. The red pole at the end of the video is most likely a forest management sign used in Russia:
Finland is prepared for Russia’s “nasties”
got in touch with the smugglers using phone numbers found on Tiktok. Smugglers also actively market their shipments in other social media services.
In recent years, Finland has been preparing for a situation where Russia would exert a hybrid influence on Finland by directing large numbers of asylum seekers to the border.
Russia carried out such an operation on the Finnish border during the 2015 refugee crisis.
President Sauli Niinistö stated yesterday that Finland has been prepared for this kind of “nasty” from Russia.
Prime minister Petteri Orpo (collective) and the Minister of the Interior Mari Rantanen (ps.) will talk about traffic restrictions on the eastern border today, Thursday.
According to ‘s information, the government wants to implement the restrictions made possible by the Border Guard Act on a fast schedule.
The reason is that the Russian authorities have changed their operations and started allowing third-country nationals to the Finnish border without a visa. Between Wednesday and last night, there were a total of 80 new arrivals.
The smuggler who spoke to says that the Russian authorities have been flexible in their cooperation.
– The checkpoint was closed, but they opened another entrance for us.