Fortress Europe – Finnish Version
Featured image: asylum seekers in winter at the Finnish border. Source: Punalippu
Finland’s eastern land border with the Russian Federation, which is about 1,300km long, has been closed since mid-December 2023. On May 21, the government presented a proposal for a new law to the parliament . The Finnish news-page Punalippu lately published an analysis of which we share some excerpts.
This new law would be an exceptional law on which in parliament a five-sixths majority would be necessary, and for the law to be introduced, the Government and the president must jointly state that it is necessary.
According to the law, the border guards could deport to the country from which the refugee arrives in Finland, if a so-called “instrumented entry” is suspected. The purpose of the law is to further militarize the eastern border, attacking mainly oppressed nations and controlling the forces driven from their homes by imperialism, thus trying to prevent internal conflicts from exploding. Thus it represents the same as the genocidal and illegal “push-back” policy of the European imperialists and their lackeys in the Mediterranean.
The law would allow send the asylum seeker away at the border, according to the assessment of the border authorities, even by force, if the situation requires it. In practice, this would mean preventing the application for asylum and thus a gross violation of international agreements.
This is already a practice on the eastern border, but the enactment of the Conversion Act aims to build a seemingly legal basis for this illegality.
The law includes phrases about “those in a particularly vulnerable position” and it is claimed that those who are in “real danger” in their country should be allowed to apply for asylum. It is well known that the imperialists’ definitions of safe countries are completely arbitrary and cruel. Now the power of assessment would be given to the border guards, and in cases where violence is used or there are a large number of people, the assessment could be completely omitted.
The imperialists in general, as well as Finnish imperialism in particular, as it has completely openly stated, needs immigrants from oppressed countries. All that remains for these people is labor force, which is “imported into the country”. However, the imperialists, with their increasing exploitation and wars, have mobilized vast masses from the oppressed nations, and these masses threaten to destabilize their internal order when they arrive in the imperialist countries, manifesting the contradiction between imperialism and the oppressed nations now within them, “bringing the war home”, exacerbating their internal contradictions and establishing the melting of the working class of the imperialist countries with the workers of the oppressed nations.
The government says it is aware that the law has “certain tensions” with the constitution and international agreements. It states that “national security” is the basis for deviating from these. Time and time again, it becomes clear that international law, the so-called “universal and indivisible human rights” and the bourgeoisie’s own laws do not mean anything.
Russian imperialism used especially undocumented immigrants in a desperate and vulnerable position and Finnish imperialism uses this to further militarize the eastern border and attack oppressed nations, acting just as illegally as Russian imperialism. “National security” is drummed up for the law, inciting chauvinism towards oppressed nations and painting menacing pictures of uncontrollable “illegal” hordes of people rushing across the eastern border.
The increase in militarization is very clear. What is particularly telling is that the government plans to even allow reservists to be assigned to the border in the name of “rehearsal exercises”. Similar lawlessness and militarization have been going on in the Mediterranean for a long time. Recently, this illegality was written into law in the form of the EU Migration Agreement. The conversion law is therefore in line with the policy pursued by the imperialists in the Mediterranean for a long time, and Finland has also openly demanded a tougher border policy in the EU.
The Reversal Act represents yet another step in the evolution of reactionary development, and it shows that the imperialists have to resort to ever-increasing lawlessness in their efforts to contain the escalation of contradictions, especially the contradiction between imperialism and the oppressed nations.
