Finland ready to strengthen control at border with Sweden: Interior Minister

Finnish Minister of the Interior Petteri Orpo said on Friday that Finland is fully ready to start control at border with Sweden, Finnish national broadcaster Yle reported.

Two days ago, the European Commission agreed to extend controls at certain internal Schengen borders, specifically in Germany, Austria, Sweden, Denmark and Norway for a maximum period of six months, due to shortfalls in Greece's management of the EU external border.

Orpo told Yle that he believed the commission's decision on the extension of emergency border controls was good, as it did not change the Finnish line on migration.

As results of the tightened border checks, he said, the migration situation at the Finnish-Russian border eased notably, and illegal immigration across Swedish-Danish border stopped.

"We are, therefore, fully prepared to begin internal border controls very quickly, if the situation requires," Orpo was quoted as saying.

So far, Finland has already implemented checks at ports and airports, as well as the northern border with Russia.

If the influx of asylum seekers across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe gets out of control again, Finland may decide to reintroduce border controls at the land border between Finland and Sweden, he said.

Last year, about 32,500 asylum seekers arrived in Finland. Most of them travelled via Sweden. In addition, nearly 2,000 migrants came from Russia into Finland via the Lapland border crossings in late 2015 and early 2016. Endit