Saleh Almeri, aged 26, gathered his strength and rode his bike all the way to Finland. It was November 17, a few minutes before midnight and Helsinki had just announced the closure of four of its border crossings in the southeast of the country. Having come to try his luck by cab, the young man was stopped by Russian soldiers, then sent to a police station, where officers put him in a car with a bicycle. "A Russian police officer sold it to me for €250 to get to the border. He took my passport and my phone," he revealed. The car dropped him off a few hundred meters before the demarcation line. He cycled the rest of the way, as crossing the border on foot was forbidden. "I was the last to enter," said Saleh with a shy smile. A moment later, he was seeking asylum in Finland.

Originally from Yemen, the young migrant arrived in Russia in 2019 on a student visa. In June, he graduated from university in Rostov-on-Don with a degree in mechatronics engineering. On his phone, he proudly displayed photos of the graduation ceremony. Shortly afterwards, mercenaries from the Wagner group, rebelling against Moscow, entered the city. Fearing forced recruitment, Saleh fled to Belarus, from where he made three unsuccessful attempts to enter Poland. Back in Russia, he learned on social media in early November that a route to the European Union had opened in Finland.

Like him, 913 people from Syria, Iraq, Somalia and elsewhere entered the Nordic country of 5.5 million people via Russia in November, before the border was completely closed on the 29^th. Compared to the French population, this represents just over 11,200 people. But never mind the figures, according to the interior minister, Mari Rantanen (Finns Party, far right), contacted by Le Monde: "It's not an immigration issue, but a security one. We suspect Russia of wanting to instrumentalize migrants, and we want this to stop immediately."

At the Nuijamaa border crossing, in pristine landscape 250 kilometers east of Helsinki, director of operations Samuel Siljanen assured us on Wednesday, November 29 that the situation was "under control." Here, before the Covid-19 epidemic, the outbreak of war in Ukraine and the suspension of tourist visas granted by Finland to Russians, some 20,000 vehicles passed through every day. Now, it's impossible to get closer than 100 meters.

'Russia is behind it all'

Since the barriers were lowered on November 17, two migrants have attempted to cross the border into the forest nearby. They were quickly intercepted. "The snow is our best ally," said a phlegmatic Siljanen. The border guards have also installed barbed wire on some easily accessible sections, pending the erection of a three-meter-high barrier, of which only three kilometers have been built out of the 200 kilometers planned. The European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) has sent 50 agents as reinforcements. "We were prepared for this kind of situation," assured Siljanen, who pointed out that during the winter of 2015-2016, well before Finland joined NATO last April, Russian guards had let through 1000 migrants, before resuming filtering operations, as they have done since the Cold War era.

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