the Frontex agency deploys 55 agents to the Russian border in the face of migratory pressure

Around fifty officers from the European coast and border guard agency Frontex are currently deployed on the border separating Finland and Russia, as the agency announced on X (formerly Twitter) Wednesday December 6. These reinforcements come against the backdrop of a diplomatic crisis, with Helsinki accusing Moscow of orchestrating a migration crisis on its doorstep.

The majority of these agents “are border guard officers”, a Frontex spokesperson, Piotr Switalski, also told AFP, without specifying their nationality. This support is planned until the end of January. “Of course, we are ready to change this depending on the evolution of the situation. We can be present for a longer or shorter period depending on the needs”he added. “We know that migration pressure is one of the tools used by the Kremlin and so we can expect this to continue.”

Moscow denies outright

Nearly 1,000 asylum seekers, notably from Somalia, Iraq and Yemen, have presented themselves at the border crossings between the two countries since the beginning of August, according to the Finnish authorities. Helsinki accuses Moscow of deliberately letting these migrants pass and denounces “hybrid attack” from his neighbor.

The European Commission, for its part, denounced a “shameful exploitation” of migrants by Moscow. The Kremlin rejected these accusations at the end of November, saying that Russian border guards were only obeying their “service instructions”.