Radio Selkouutiset 28 November 2023
Eastern border closed. Calm in Raja-Joosep. SDP’s alternative budget. Thai berry pickers. Weather.
The entire Eastern border is closed
The government closes the entire eastern border of Finland for 2 weeks.
The Inari Raja-Joosepi border station will also be closed on Thursday. The eastern border will remain closed at least until December 13. Only goods traffic can cross the eastern border of Finland.
During this time, you can only apply for a safety kit in Finland at airports and ports.
Prime Minister Petteri Orpo says that the eastern border will be closed because Russia is transporting asylum seekers to the Finnish border. More than 900 asylum seekers from Russia have crossed the eastern border into Finland since August.
Calm in Raja-Joosep
Tuesday was a quiet day at the Raja-Joosepi border crossing in Lapland. Vesa Arffman, head of the Ivalo border guard station, says that no asylum seekers from Russia crossed the border.
About 50 employees of the European border authority Frontex arrived to help the Finnish border guard on Tuesday. Finland previously asked Frontex for help in monitoring the eastern border.
SDP’s alternative budget
The largest opposition party, SDP, has presented its own alternative for the use of money by the Finnish state.
In the alternative budget, SDP proposes that next year Finland will take on 430 million euros less debt than Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s government. Finland’s tax revenues will increase by 830 million euros in this SDP alternative.
In SDP’s opinion, the taxation of people with high incomes should not be reduced.
Parliament will discuss the opposition’s alternative budgets tomorrow, Wednesday.
Thai berry pickers
The police suspect that 5 people have committed a crime in a story related to Thai berry pickers.
The case will then proceed to prosecution. The police suspect that Thai berry pickers were victims of human trafficking in Finland in 2020-2022.
During the preliminary investigation, the police found 170 Thai berry pickers, but perhaps as many as 2,000 people fell victim to human trafficking.
Weather
It will snow in the north on Wednesday. There will probably be snow showers on the southern coast. In the rest of the country, there is mostly snow.
Almost the entire country has clouds in the sky. In the west, the sun may shine for a while. It’s about 5 degrees below zero.