Prime Minister Petteri Orpo (NCP) reacted at a news conference organised by the Finnish Institute of International Affairs and European Movement Finland in Helsinki on 18 December 2023. Orpo has floated the idea of adopting a so-called push-back procedure on the eastern border if the looming re-opening of border-crossing points prompts another wave of asylum seekers from Russia. Experts on Tuesday told YLE that the procedure would constitute a clear violation of international treaties. (Markku Ulander – Lehtikuva)
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THE GOVERNMENT of Prime Minister Petteri Orpo (NCP) is scrambling to identify means to respond to various scenarios as it prepares to re-open border-crossing points on the border between Finland and Russia.
Orpo has stated that the government will explore all options at its disposal, including look into the possibility of sending people back without processing their asylum claims in some circumstances.
YLE on Tuesday reported that legal experts have rejected the idea he floated before the holidays of adopting a so-called push-back procedure on the border. Martti Koskenniemi, a professor emeritus of international law at the University of Helsinki, stated to the public broadcaster that the procedure would explicitly constitute a violation of international treaties.
“I can only think that Orpo doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Surely the prime minister can’t be proposing something like that. It’s no use using the English term. It’s a proposal to violate treaties,” he retorted.
Lithuania and Poland, for example, adopted a similar procedure in response to a hybrid campaign carried out by Belarus in 2021. Poland was later ruled to have violated the law by the European Court of Human Rights.
Koskenniemi on Tuesday reminded that international treaties have been regarded as beneficial for small countries like Finland. “Violating the treaties would be devastating for our foreign policy.”
Jaana Palander, a research assistant at Åbo Akademi University, similarly characterised the push-back procedure as a violation of human rights obligations.
“Legislative reforms proposed to EU law would make the border procedure lighter, and yet you could continue to interview asylum seekers and refugees. Pushback means that people wouldn’t necessarily be met or heard at all,” she said to YLE.
Politicians in Finland have recently discussed the possibility of revisiting international treaties. President Sauli Niinistö, for example, has repeatedly commented on the applicability of existing refugee conventions in the current situation.
Few, though, appear to have tried to take the discussion further, highlighted Koskenniemi. While he viewed that it is acceptable to call for amendments or updates to the conventions, doing so repeatedly without taking action creates the impression that politicians are simply preparing the ground for violating international treaties.
“And that’s my concern when it comes to this discussion.”
He admitted that the international conventions that define the statuses of refugees and asylum seekers are not necessarily compatible with the hybrid campaigns witnessed on the external borders of the EU. In addition to taking such campaigns better into consideration, it could be necessary to re-define the term refugee and revise the asylum procedure.
Palander is not convinced that amending or supplementing the refugee convention would solve the problems on the eastern border and other external borders of the EU. While it is theoretically possible to embark on a campaign to amend the current system of refugee laws, it would be difficult and time-consuming – if not altogether impossible.
Amendments to the treaties, she added, would likely lead to an up-tick in the number of vulnerable people in need of assistance.
“If the entire system of international protection is torn down, it’d be quite a dystopia,” she said.
With the Finnish government set to re-open border crossing points on the eastern border next week, there are concerns that hundreds of migrants could, yet again, arrive at the border from Russia.
Palander believes the situation can be tackled with a combination of diplomatic and political means, along with a reform of the immigration laws of the EU. Koskenniemi, in turn, encouraged the government to seek common ground between the various relevant viewpoints.
“On the one hand, we have human rights, refugee rights and the treaty system that we have to promote and try to reform. On the other hand, Russia’s politics are something we have to respond to clearly and resolutely,” he said to YLE.
One option, he added, could be to only open one border-crossing point on the border and implement some sort of slow asylum procedure. “How long it’d be worthwhile for Russia to continue the operation when people couldn’t get here because of the slowness of the procedure and because the number of people at the border would increase.”
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
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Source: www.helsinkitimes.fi
