Four arrested in attempt to illegal cross border to Norway

Russia’s border guard service, a branch of the FSB, detained the four persons in what it said to be “an attempt of illegal crossing of the state border to Norway,” Severpost reports on Sunday.

Investigation is initiated. The report says nothing about where the four North Africans were detained or in which way they tried to cross the border.

The Russian, Norwegian land border is normally a very quite border. Since Norway became member of Schengen in 2001, only five known illegal border-crossings are officially recorded. 

Russia’s border to Norway is 196 kilometres long and has only one checkpoint on the road where border crossings are allowed. Two-third of the border goes in river.

On the Russian side, there is a barbed wire fence with alarm system all along the border zone area. If a person tries to climb the fence, an alarm will be triggered and border guard soldiers will be alarmed.

In the autumn 2015, some 5,500 migrants where allowed to leave Russia and enter Norway at the Borisoglebsk-Storskog border checkpoints. The so-called “Arctic Migrant Route” ended in late November 2015. 

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