A New Migrant Route Towards Europe

 

Photo source: Euractiv

By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront

Russia may seem an odd place for migrants to cross into Europe, but the route through its Arctic and forested borderlands is not new. It triggered a clash between Brussels and Moscow in 2015–16, when small numbers of asylum seekers arrived at northern checkpoints by bicycle, prompting EU accusations of ‘instrumentalised migration’, as reported by BBC News and Reuters. After years of quiet, the pattern re‑emerged in late 2023, when Finnish authorities recorded hundreds of arrivals and warned that the route posed renewed security and humanitarian risks for those travelling in sub‑zero conditions, according to Yle and The Guardian. Finnish officials said roughly nine hundred people made the crossing in November 2023, raising concerns in Helsinki and Brussels about a possible escalation, noted Reuters.

European authorities predictably cried foul. Finnish leaders accused Russia of ‘weaponising’ migration to retaliate for Finland’s April 2023 accession to NATO, a claim that NATO and EU officials said was plausible given prior episodes on the Belarus–Poland frontier in 2021, reported The Washington Post and Financial Times. Yet Finnish ministers also acknowledged that Europe’s own hardened policies across the Balkans and Mediterranean had made southern and eastern routes more dangerous, pushing migrants and smugglers to adapt by going north, an argument echoed by Al Jazeera’s analysis. In other words, while Russia’s motives are suspect, European finger‑pointing can obscure internal complicity in creating the conditions for this shift.

The Kremlin has denied facilitating irregular crossings. A report by Balkan Insight’s Claudia Ciobanu noted Moscow’s categorical rejection of claims that it was ‘tempting’ migrants to the Finnish border, even as Finnish officials described a change in Russian enforcement. The Finnish Border Guard said that while Russia had applied a bilateral agreement to bar travellers without proper documents from approaching the border until August 2023, it appeared to allow greater access thereafter, increasing pressure at official crossing points, according to Yle and Reuters. Finnish officers also said their observations were consistent with new operational patterns on the Russian side, though they stopped short of alleging direct state orchestration without hard proof, reported BBC News.

Nevertheless, videos posted to Telegram and circulated by local Balkan media appeared to show migrants communicating with smugglers and being organised near the Finnish frontier by individuals in Russian uniforms. In one widely shared clip from November 2023, tens of migrants congregated in the snow with tents and bicycles under the watch of men resembling local police, border guards and traffic officers, some carrying guns, with a municipal ambulance nearby; a road sign in the footage pointed to Priozersk, roughly fifty kilometres from the Finnish border, and vehicle plates included Murmansk and Saint Petersburg registrations, according to Balkan Insight. Two other videos from the same channel showed migrants boarding buses under guidance from men in uniform, later receiving bicycles apparently transported by a truck accompanying the convoy, the outlet reported. While neither locations nor filming dates could be independently verified by newsrooms, Finnish assessments treated such material as corroborative ‘signals’ rather than dispositive evidence, noted The Guardian.

The broader picture is familiar: when old routes become too dangerous, new ones open. Deadly pushbacks, detentions and deportations across the Balkans and the Mediterranean have made those corridors perilous for people on the move, a trend documented by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. Faced with limited options, migrants and smugglers have set their sights on Moscow and the freezing forest tracks beyond it to reach Europe. Finland responded decisively, closing all crossing points along its 1,300‑plus kilometre border with Russia in late 2023 and extending the measure into early 2024, while announcing that asylum requests would be processed inside designated registration centres and that a fence of up to two hundred kilometres would be built by 2026, according to Reuters and Yle. Finnish agencies stressed that the barrier was intended to channel movement to controlled points rather than halt asylum entirely, a distinction underscored in EU guidance, reported BBC News.

Brussels framed the rise in arrivals at the Russian–Finnish border as ‘hybrid warfare’ conducted by Moscow. Hans Leijtens, Frontex’s executive director, said in 2023 that the EU must be ready for Russia ‘using migration to advance its geopolitical interests’, citing the Belarus episode as precedent, reported The Washington Post. While there is no hard evidence of a centrally directed Russian programme ferrying migrants to Finnish gates, a growing body of testimonies and videos hints at engagement by Russian authorities at least in permitting access to border zones and tolerating smuggler activity, as Reuters and Balkan Insight reported. It is unlikely the European accusations are baseless; equally, it is unlikely that Vladimir Putin is the sole or even main reason migrants are bicycling through the snow to Finland. Smugglers operate opportunistically and migrants adapt to enforcement; the reason they enter Russia at all is that European policy has made other routes incredibly difficult and dangerous, a conclusion supported by The Guardian and Amnesty International.

In Lapland, a sparsely populated region of northern Finland, a new door to Europe briefly seemed open. Raja‑Jooseppi, the northernmost checkpoint on the Finnish–Russian border, became a focal point before closures, with images of arrivals on two wheels circulating widely, according to BBC News. Finnish media reported that the migrants now crossing into Europe in northern Finland were mainly the same nationalities seen lately on the Russian–Norwegian frontier: Afghans, Nepalese, Palestinians and Iraqis, alongside Syrians and Somalis, noted Yle and The Guardian. Despite smugglers advertising services, early crossers were sometimes able to present themselves at official posts without intermediaries. Unlike the Belarus–Poland route, where cutting fences or traversing rivers and marshes required clandestine assistance, the Finnish crossings occurred at official points with Border Guard officers receiving asylum applications, according to Reuters.

A peculiar detail captured public attention: migrants used bicycles they had purchased to enter Finland because certain crossing points did not allow foot traffic. Finnish officers confirmed that bicycles met the ‘vehicle’ requirement at some Arctic posts, mirroring what occurred on the Norway–Russia border in 2015, reported BBC News. As news of the Finnish option spread, migrants in Belarus reportedly redirected north to Russia to approach Finnish crossings, reflecting the fluidity of journeys shaped by enforcement and opportunity, according to Al Jazeera.

The question of ‘weaponisation’ runs through this story. Analysts use the term to describe ‘alleged steering of migrants to the frontier by Moscow to raise pressure on Finland and the wider EU over their political and military support for Ukraine’, a formulation echoed by The Washington Post and Financial Times. But ‘weaponisation’ can cut both ways. The harder Europe makes southern and eastern routes — via fences, naval deterrence and externalised border control — the more it channels ‘ammunition’ to those who would exploit pressure points on its periphery. As one Guardian analysis put it, ‘Europe’s border hardening creates vulnerabilities as much as it closes doors.’ This does not absolve Russia of responsibility; it warns Europe not to mistake symptoms for causes.

Factually, the pattern is clear and the evidence mixed. The route was largely dormant after 2016 but resurfaced in late 2023 with unusual crossings and bicycle‑borne arrivals, confirmed by Finnish authorities and covered by BBC News and Reuters. Finland closed and then extended closures of all crossings, launched a fence plan and concentrated asylum processing in controlled centres, as Yle reported. Frontex warned of possible Russian instrumentalisation, with Hans Leijtens urging readiness; EU officials invoked ‘hybrid tactics’, reported The Washington Post. There is no definitive proof of a centralised Russian operation, yet videos, testimonies and adjusted Russian border practices point to at least permissive conditions for movement, according to Balkan Insight and The Guardian. Meanwhile, migration pressure has been shaped by Europe’s own deterrent policies to the south and east, pushing journeys into harsher, riskier environments, noted Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. In the forests of Lapland and at Raja‑Jooseppi, a narrow opening became a flashpoint in a larger struggle over borders, responsibility and the human cost of geopolitics.