The Lapland Border Guard District has said that there is no truth to an online report by the Russian state-owned Vesti news channel (also known as Russia-24) claiming that Finland has begun mass deportations of asylum seekers entering from Russia.
The report, published on Wednesday the 20th of January, states that on the previous day Finnish officials deported more than 50 people to Russia. It described these people as being from "eastern countries".
It also quoted a representative of the Russian locality of Alakurtti, close to the Salla crossing point, as saying that deportees had no proper shelter available and had to wait in temperatures of -36C for assistance.
Finland's Lapland Border Guard District has stated that the report is not true.
Lapland Border Guard spokesman Hannu Markkula told Yle that not a single individual who has applied for asylum in Finland this year, or last year, has been returned to Russia via border crossing points in Lapland.
Asylum seekers arriving at these border crossing points are being forwarded for processing. Lapland Border Guard District officials report that so far this year, one person has been turned back, a Russia national who lacked an entry visa.
