Norway might put a fence along part or all of the 198-kilometre border it shares with Russia, the government said during the weekend. The Storskog border station, which has witnessed only a handful of illegal border crossing attempts in the past few years, is the only official crossing point into Norway from Russia.
In an interview with public broadcaster NRK which was published on Saturday (Sep 28), Justice Minister Emilie Mehl said that her government was looking at “several measures” to beef up security on the border with Russia in the Arctic North.
“A border fence is very interesting, not only because it can act as a deterrent but also because it contains sensors and technology that allow you to detect if people are moving close to the border,” Justice Minister Mehl said.
Mehl added should the security situation in the delicate Arctic area worsen, the Norwegian government was ready to close the border on short notice.
An inspiration from Finland
Inspired by Finland’s project, Enger Mehl said that such a fence could also be a good idea for Norway. According to the NRK, her statement was supported by police chief Ellen Katrine Hætta in Norway’s northern Finnmark county.
The Storskog border station is currently surrounded by a 200-meter (660-foot) -long and 3.5-meter (12-foot) -high fence erected in 2016 after some 5,000 migrants and asylum-seekers had crossed over from Russia to Norway a year earlier.
Why Finland closed all crossing points from Russia?
In late 2023, the Finnish government was prompted to close all crossing points from Russia to Finland after over 1,300 third-country migrants without proper documentation or visas entered the country in three months.
These migrants entered Finland just months after the country became a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Finland is currently building fences with a total length of up to 200 kilometres (124 miles) in separate sections along the border zone that makes up part of NATO’s northern flank and serves as the European Union’s external border, a report by the news agency Associated Press said.
According to border officials, fences equipped with top-notch surveillance equipment were needed to better monitor and control any migrants attempting to cross over from Russia and give officials time to react.
(With inputs from agencies)
