Finland Times

 

File picture of Helsinki Airport. Photo - Lehtikuva

Arrival of illegal refugees at Helsinki airport has seen a significant increase in recent time reportedly after opening of the direct air route between Helsinki and Hanoi, said sources in the Border Control Department.

 

The Finnish immigration authority brought the issue under inspection following arrest of 20 people on arrival from Vietnam at the airport in early July, the sources said.

 

The department suspects involvement of organised international crime gangs in Vietnam, Germany, Finland, and China in the racket.

 

‘The border patrol learned about the probable arrival of illegal refugees following the opening of the air route between Helsinki and Hanoi in the beginning of July,’ Helsinki Border Control Department Chief Pentti Alapelto told STT on Tuesday, adding that about half of the refugees sought asylum in Finland.

 

Some of the refugees came without any paper and the rest with fake passports, said Alapelto. 

 

‘In a pre-trial investigation we found the crime gangs use Finland as a transit point and some of the illegal immigrants move on to Middle Europe via Finland,’ Border Patrol Crime Prevention Deputy Chief Jukka Tekokoski told the news agency.

 

The authority ascertained three types of crime – organising the illegal entry, outrageous human trafficking, and the state border crime – being committed by the gangs.

 

Earlier this month, a television report said several hundred people try to enter Finland every year with forged passports in collusion with well-organised gangs.

 

The MTV3 report said, on an average, immigration authorities seize 200 to 300 fake passports a year at Helsinki airport. 

 

Most of the people caught with counterfeit passports at the airport in recent years came from problem-prone countries in the Middle East, the report said, adding that the number of arrival of Syrian people with fake passports has increased significantly in recent time. 

 

‘The fake passport-holders use Finland mainly as a transit point, because it is easier for them to move on to other countries from here,’ an official of  South-East border guards unit, Major Mikko Lehmus, told MTV3, adding that well-organised gangs were involved in sending people abroad with fake passports.

 

Lehmus also said people accused of travelling with fake passports could be fined thousands of Euros.