How Russia is using immigration to destabilize Europe.
Moscow is well aware of the destabilizing effect of illegal immigration and, as a form of hybrid warfare, both Russia and its puppet state, Belarus, have been making remarkably easy for illegal migrants to reach the EU through their normally heavily guarded borders. Some European states are reacting.
Finland’s parliament passed a law on Friday granting border guards the power to block asylum seekers crossing from Russia, after more than 1,300 people arrived in the country, forcing Helsinki to close its border.
Finland has accused neighbouring Russia of weaponising migration by encouraging scores of migrants from countries such as Syria and Somalia to cross the border, an assertion the Kremlin denies.
The Finns have built stretches of border wall, and Norway (which also shares a border with Russia) may be following suit.
Meanwhile, from Latvia (via Radio Free Europe, May 2024):
Historian Ilya Lensky believes the current fence along Latvia’s border should have been set up thirty years ago, and references the influx of largely Middle Eastern migrants seeking to enter Latvia from Belarus. “People are constantly walking, trying to cross. This leads to the border services being overstretched,” he says. “At the same time, these are attempts to identify some gaps in the border.”
Lensky believes one aim of the migrant crowds apparently shepherded toward the Latvian border by the Belarusian authorities, is to spark violence. “There is the expectation that someone’s nerves will give out and someone will start shooting, then will come the wonderful propaganda that Latvian border guards shot dead a helpless asylum seeker.”
From Estonia (Via Politico, November, 2023):
Estonian Interior Minister Lauri Läänemets said on Thursday Russia extended a provocative measure, originally aimed at Finland, to Estonia by “deliberately” allowing asylum seekers without visas or residence permits to reach a crossing point on its shared border, according to news outlet Delfi.
“Russia lets them pass without any reason, which means that these persons reach us and we have to deal with their concerns,” he said. “Since they have no basis for entering the European Union, it is obviously an organized and deliberate activity to burden the activities at the borders.”
And a month or two before, Lithuania (VOA, April 2023)
Lithuania’s parliament passed legislation Tuesday to make it legal to deny entry to asylum seekers, the EU member’s latest move to fight illegal immigration from Belarus to the dismay of rights activists.
The Baltic state had already been engaging in so-called pushbacks since 2021, when thousands of migrants and refugees — mainly from the Middle East and Africa — began trying to enter the European Union via Lithuania, Latvia and Poland.
Poland has faced a severe problem dealing with migrants “helped on their way” by Russia and Belarus for quite some time. Earlier this year, in what was far from the only violent attack on Polish border guards by migrants on the Belarusian side of the border, 21-year-old Sgt. Mateusz Sitek was killed by one of a volley of crude spears thrown from the other side.
And Warsaw has had enough. In late July, the Polish parliament voted 401–17 to allow its security services to use live ammunition in the event (effectively) of attempts to storm the border. At the beginning of this month, Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, announced plans to temporarily suspend the right of asylum in Poland. The language Tusk used was striking: “I will demand recognition in Europe for this decision.” Demand. Tusk is no euroskeptic, his coalition is known for its pro-EU orientation. Between 2014-19, he was one of the EU’s three “presidents.”
The EU, at least as represented by its Council (broadly speaking, the institution where the leaders of the bloc’s member states are represented) supported Tusk:
“Russia and Belarus, or any other country, cannot be allowed to abuse our values, including the right to asylum, and to undermine our democracies,” read a statement from the European Union’s 27 leaders following their meeting in Brussels.
The comments from Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen, a Social Democrat, whose government has recaptured ground previously lost to the populist Right by taking a tough line on immigration, commented that “finally” the discussion on migrants and asylum secrets had been “more realistic and honest.”
The EU Commission’s president, the generally useless Ursula von der Leyen (yet another of Angela Merkel’s unfortunate legacies), tried to dampen things a down a bit, saying that “you have to be very clear that you have a state actor [that] is having a hybrid attack against the country.” While her recognition of Russia’s use of the migration weapon (which would, of course never be used against the U.S.) is welcome, the EU’s migrant crisis cannot only be attributed to Moscow.
And so Germany has temporarily reintroduced its border controls, all of which, including that with Switzerland, are governed by the EU’s Schengen agreement. This horrified CNN, which bemoaned the end of Merkel’s ill-fated Wilkommenskultur (“welcome culture”), an evanescent phenomenon whipped up by Merkel and a compliant media, which has, in reality, long since evaporated.
Denmark too has recently tightened its border checks still further. To the south, Italy is looking to send migrants rescued at sea for processing in Albania. That effort is embroiled in a legal battle, but the message from Rome too is clear.