Over 300 researchers urge committee to reject border security act
Over 300 researchers, led by Professors Lena Näre and Markus Jäntti, have petitioned against the Finnish government's proposed border security act, urging the Parliament's Administration Committee to reject it on grounds of constitutional and human rights violations. The petition, initially signed by over 200 researchers by Sunday evening, grew to over 300 by midnight on Monday. The Administration Committee convened to discuss the bill on Monday.
The petition criticizes the government's failure to demonstrate how an increase in asylum seekers poses a serious security threat to Finland. Näre and Jäntti argue that a rule-of-law state must protect the right to seek asylum regardless of the means by which individuals arrive at the border. They aim to ensure that the committee takes a stance that respects human rights and the constitution.
Näre, a sociology professor at the University of Helsinki specializing in asylum and migration, emphasized that Finland can manage an influx of arrivals orchestrated by Russia. She pointed out that there is no evidence suggesting that these individuals are particularly dangerous and argued that the best response to instrumentalized immigration is to receive and process arrivals using established procedures. She recalled how Finland successfully managed the migrant crisis in 2015 and coped well with the influx of over 68,000 applications for temporary protection from Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion since February 2022.
The petition highlights that over 35,000 asylum seekers arrived in Finland in the autumn of 2015 without prompting discussions on abandoning human rights treaties. Näre criticized the current debate for being overly simplistic, stressing that asylum seekers arriving via Russia should not be viewed differently from those arriving through other countries like Norway or Sweden.
