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Finland extends Russia border closure until April 14 saying Moscow hasn't stopped sending migrants
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Finnish Interior Minister Mari Rantanen during press conference on the situation of the eastern border stations of Finland in Helsinki Thursday, Feb. 8, 2024. Finland will continue the closure of the eastern border stations until April 14, 2024. - photo by Heikki Saukkomaa/Lehtikuva via AP
HELSINKI (AP) — Finland's government said Thursday that it would extend the closure of its long border with Russia for another two months until April 14, because it sees no signs that Moscow was stopping its “hybrid operation” of funneling migrants toward the frontier with the Nordic nation. Finland closed the 1,340-kilometer (832-mile) land border late last year after about 1,300 migrants without proper documentation or visas had arrived across the frontier since September — an unusually high number, just months after Finland joined the NATO alliance. Most of the migrants hail from the Middle East and Africa.