Three Afghans arrested while trying to reach Norway from Russia
The prosecutor’s office in Murmansk informs that a criminal investigation is launched against the three young Afghan citizens that were arrested on Sunday.
The three were stopped and detained inside the border zone, the prosecutors office reports. Attempt to illegal cross Russia’s border to Norway is a crime with a penalty of up to four years imprisonment.
No information is provided about where along Russia’s 196 kilometers long border to Norway the three where arrested, exept saying it was in the Pechenga region.
This is the fifth time over the last six months migrants have been arrested in attempt to cross the border to Norway. In August, a Syrian citizen was arrested after he climbed the through the barbed wire fence. In July, two other Syrians made it through the fence, but were detained before they reached the borderline. In June, four Moroccans were arrested and in March, two Iranians were halted.
On the Russian side of the border, the barbed wire fence stretches all 196 kilometers. The fence has alarm system and in some areas near public roads, there are also surveillance cameras working day and night.
The fence is in different distances to the border line itself, some places a few hundred meters, other places several kilometers from the border.
In the autumn 2015, some 5,500 migrants where allowed to leave Russia and enter Norway at the Borisoglebsk-Storskog border checkpoints. The so-called “Arctic Migrant Route” ended in late November 2015.
Related stories from around the North:
Canada: Census 2016: Nunavut leads Canada’s population growth, Radio Canada International
Finland: Finland asylum seekers to march from Lapland border town into Sweden, Radio Sweden
Norway: ‘Time for new buildings’: Norway border police faces rise in traffic from Russia, The Independent Barents Observer
Sweden: Sweden faces criticism over border controls, Radio Sweden
Russia: Putin signs law easing cross-border cooperation with Norway and Finland, The Independent Barents Observer
United States: With Trump ending DACA program, uncertainty looms for Alaska’s few ‘dreamers’, Alaska Dispatch News
