The two are seeking asylum in Finland, the Border Guard says.
The North Karelia Border Guard has taken into custody two foreign individuals suspected of having illegally entered Finland from Russia in the Möhkö area of Ilomantsi on Monday.
According to the Border Guard, the suspects did not resist detention.
The lead investigator, Border Guard Captain Matti Kettunen, said that they were taken into custody on a road and immediately announced they were seeking asylum in Finland.
“Their intent was to contact the authorities,” Kettunen told Yle.
This is the first suspected illegal border crossing from Russia to Finland this year.
The Border Guard has initiated a preliminary investigation into the suspected state border crime.
In addition to the criminal investigation, the individuals are also subject to a new EU screening procedure. This is the first time that the procedure has been applied on Finland’s eastern border, which has been closed since late 2023.
The procedure involves identifying or establishing the identity of individuals, determining whether they pose a threat to internal security or public health. They are then registered in the EU’s Eurodac (European Asylum Dactyloscopy Database), a centralised biometric system that registers and stores the fingerprints of asylum applicants and irregular migrants.
Due to the incident, the border commissioner of Finland’s North Karelia region has been in contact with the border commissioner of Russia’s Suoyarvi (Suojärvi) district in the Republic of Karelia.
