More from: Borders

The newly elected Head of State started his trip to the region of North Karelia with a visit to the border-crossing point of Niirala.
March 27, 2024
The municipal council of Sør-Varanger, where Kirkenes is the town center, on Wednesday ended its friendship agreement with next-door Pechenga Rayon.
March 20, 2024
There were just over 4,000 crossings at the Norwegian-Russian border in February.
March 03, 2024
Finland closed its eastern border with Russia in December due to an influx of undocumented migrants.
February 05, 2024
Storskog has become the closest checkpoint for travelers between northern Finland and Russia, but January saw a further drop in crossings by 22 percent compared with December.
February 02, 2024
Finnish border guard on Thursday arrested 18 people from the Middle East who walked the snow from Russia.
January 25, 2024
Norwegian immigration police summarize traffic for 2023, 30% growth, but far below pre-COVID levels.
January 14, 2024
The Kremlin official claimed it is possible that the “collective West” is urging migrants to leave Russia for Finland.
January 14, 2024
Finnish authorities have begun investigating about 1,000 asylum seekers over suspicions that they committed a border offence when they entered the country.
January 14, 2024
The group was assisted by people on the Russian side, the Finnish Border Guard informs.
January 12, 2024
The head of the Cabinet of Ministers of Finland believes that the opening of the checkpoints on the eastern border still threatens the national security of the country.
January 10, 2024
Huge lines and hours of waiting for the people trying to make it across the Russian-Finnish border ahead of today's indefinite closure. Among the travellers is also a big number of migrants without valid travel documents to Finland.
December 15, 2023
Russian FSB border guard service allowed for 93 migrants to cross the Niirala border with Finland on Thursday, a move Helsinki says is a “hybrid operation” that will not be tolerated.
December 15, 2023
As soon as Finland announced the reopening of its border to Russia, migrants started to move towards the border-crossing points. Videos show a significant number of migrants preparing to cross the border from Russia to Finland by bicycle.
December 14, 2023
Vaalimaa and Niirala checkpoints will open for traffic with Russia on December 14.
December 12, 2023
Storskog on the Norwegian-Russian border is the last land checkpoint where Russians are allowed into the Schengen area on tourist visas. Now that Finland has decided to close all of its land border crossings many are worried about possible closure of Storskog. The Barents Observer spoke to people who regularly cross the border between Russia and Norway.
November 30, 2023
The Finnish Government on Tuesday decided to close the entire border with Russia for two weeks.
November 28, 2023
Migrants are now being sent back from the Murmansk region. Pressure on the Finnish border is less dramatic.
November 28, 2023
Despite hundreds of migrants queuing up in the Murmansk region with a strong will to make it to Europe, Norwegian police authorities are unwilling to send a helicopter north for surveillance along the remote wilderness border in polar night and freezing cold.
November 24, 2023
The erection of new checkpoints in the Kola Peninsula has helped ease the migrant situation, Murmansk Governor Andrei Chibis says. According to the regional leader, migrants without valid documents are now starting to "turn around and leave."
November 23, 2023
All checkpoints to Russia, except the northernmost, will temporarily be closed from Thursday evening Prime Minister Petteri Orpo announced at a press conference in Helsinki.
November 22, 2023
Finland has asked for 60 servants to help safeguard the frontier as migrants continue to come from Russia.
November 22, 2023
In what appears as a well orchestrated hoax, the Governor of Murmansk says about 300 migrants are desperately trying to make it to the border-crossing point of Salla and that Finland is to blame. Mounting indications point at the deliberate staging of the situation by Russian security services.
November 22, 2023
"Our services came and picked them up,” a receptionist with the motel in Kandalaksha said when called by the Barents Observer on Tuesday. A few hours later, 41 migrants crossed the border to Finish Lapland at Salla checkpoint.
November 21, 2023
Tensions are increasing as FSB again sends migrants across its northern checkpoint with Europe. A group of 35 asylum seekers came to Salla in Finnish Lapland on Monday. Norway says it is on alert.
November 20, 2023

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