If the law is approved, it is expected to be in effect for one year.
Photo: EAST NEWS.
On Tuesday, July 9, the Finnish parliament, aptly named Eduskunta, will vote on one of the most controversial laws in modern Finnish history. An emergency “expulsion bill” draft, officially called the “Act on Temporary Measures to Combat Guided Migration,” will be submitted to 199 representatives of the people for approval. It has already been approved by the parliament’s administrative and constitutional committee.
In short, MPs are being asked to adopt an extraordinary law because of its sharp contradictions with the Constitution and EU legislation, which allows denying political asylum already at the border to immigrants from Asian and African countries, who, according to the Finnish side, Russia is deliberately and almost forcibly sending to Finland to punish the latter for its refusal to remain neutral and its membership of NATO.
The existing international norms, formulated mostly after World War II, obviously do not correspond to today’s realities: back then people were more likely to flee abroad because of the war, but now the main motivation of most immigrants is a well-fed life in rich European countries. But the law, even one that is morally obsolete, is still the law, and an attempt to circumvent it requires civic courage on the part of Finnish MPs. One needs to understand the national mindset to realise how the brain of the average parliamentarian is now torn between the three pillars of the Finnish worldview: honesty and respect for the law (constitution, EU legislation, international conventions), fear of what Europe’s neighbours will think, and pragmatism (political expediency, external government pressure).
The decision depends largely on the opposition, mainly the Social Democrats, who do not guarantee full support for the bill. The Greens and the Union of Left Forces are rather negative about the bill. The opposition party Centre, as well as the governing parties (National Coalition, True Finns and Christian Democrats) are already prepared to vote for them.
If all 199 deputies are present at the meeting on July 9 and 34 deputies vote against or abstain, the bill will fail. Therefore, government representatives are constantly working to bring the people’s representatives to their senses. We can only hope that the law will be approved by parliament and that, in turn, this will give reason to hope for a partial opening of the border with Russia, which has been completely blocked since last autumn.
If the law is approved, it is expected to be in effect for one year. This is enough time to fine-tune the filtration processes at the eastern border and adopt a more balanced and long-term law that takes into account both the country’s security interests and the rights of migrants.
