The Rovaniemi-based daily Lapin Kansa is among the papers carrying a STT Finnish news agency report saying that a small number of asylum seekers who recently crossed the eastern border have already received a negative decision, or have canceled their asylum applications.
The head of the asylum unit of the Finnish Immigration Service Migri, Antti Lehtinen, told STT that these are individual cases. He added that none of the recent arrivals have been yet granted asylum. Those who received a negative decision can appeal.
The report goes on to say that some of the migrants who recently crossed into Finland from Russia are known to have already left Finland and applied for asylum in other EU countries.
In an editorial, Lapin Kansa writes that it should be expected that Russia will continue its hybrid operation on the Finnish border as long as it considers that it will benefit from it, and even closing the border will not necessarily stop the operation.
The paper writes that disagreements over closing the border among political decision-makers must have been noted with satisfaction in Russia. "The Kremlin's intentions can only be guessed at, but if the purpose of the state-led border operation was to cause social confusion in Finland, which likes to present itself as a country adhering to the rule of law, the operation has succeeded," the paper states.
Lapin Kansa adds that how the operation will continue is also a matter of speculation, but it is convinced that it will continue, one way or another, even with the border closed.
"It has been difficult to legally justify closing the border when the flow of arrivals has remained small, but continuous. Now it is done, but this may also be one of Russia's goals. This will strengthen the image of a hostile, Russophobic West fed to the [Russian] people by the Kremlin," writes Lapin Kansa.
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More political strikes
Member unions of the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions SAK are continuing a series of political strikes and walkouts, on Wednesday in Helsinki and elsewhere in the Uusimaa region.
According to a report in Porvoo's Uusimaa, the Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors JHL says that the strike in Helsinki includes the employees of Helsinki public housing, Helsinki City Construction Services Stara, the city's Uusix Workshops, the National Gallery, and the Pakila work centre.
Strikes by members of the service industry trade union PAM will impact companies in the logistics sector and some cleaning services. Unions in the construction, manufacturing and electricity industries are also taking part.
The strikes are part of a campaign opposing government plans to reform labour market laws and cut social benefits.
Fit to work
Maaseudun Tulevaisuus looks at a study by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare THL showing that more than half of people aged 65–74 in Finland say they still feel fit enough to work.
There are a total of more than 700,000 people in this age group in the country. According to the THL Terve Suomi (Healthy Finland) survey, 55 percent of them, or almost 390,000, estimate that they are fully able to work.
However, only about 10 percent of those who consider themselves able to work are gainfully employed.
Maaseudun Tulevaisuus notes that this means that there are large number of people who have passed retirement age whose potential in the labour market remains unused.
However, THL expert Päivikki Koponen pointed out in a release on the study that employment is not a realistic possibility for all those who consider themselves able to work.
Data for this most recent Terve Suomi study was carried out in autumn 2022 and spring 2023.
Forced sale?
Helsinki Halli, the largest concert venue in the Helsinki area and a major sports setting, has been closed since Russia started its war against Ukraine in 2022 and the Russian shareholders of the company that owns the arena appeared on the West's sanctions list..
Among the owners of the hall on the EU sanctions list are the oligarch brothers Arkadi and Boris Rotenberg and Gennadi Timchenko.
US sanctions also include Boris Rotenberg's son Roman Rotenberg and businessman Kai Paananen, who play a role on the board of the arena's holding company.
Helsingin Sanomat says that investors have shown interest in acquiring Helsinki Halli, but the Russian-Finnish owners of the building have not been willing to sell.
The paper now reports that the mayor of Helsinki, Juhana Vartiainen (NCP), says that he has been in contact with potential buyers through his staff, although hedeclined to provide any details of the talks.
"I'm somewhat more hopeful about it than before, but I'm not quite there yet," Vartiainen told HS.
The EU is reported to be preparing a new package of sanctions against Russia, which, if implemented, could facilitate the expropriation of the venue.
A voluntary or a forced sale is likely to happen, Vartiainen told the paper, although he was unable to say when this might take place.
"Snow chaos" threatens Helsinki
Ilta-Sanomat warns readers that a series of strikes scheduled to take place in the capital region on Wednesday may help snarl traffic in Helsinki.
The reason is that employees of the Helsinki City Construction Services company Stara, which is responsible for city street maintenance will be walking off the job for 24 hours.
This means that snow plowing and sanding of the city's streets will come to a halt, possibly creating the "chaos" forecast by Ilta-Sanomat's headline.
A warning of poor driving conditions, due to heavy snowfall, has been issued the northern and central parts of the country, as well as for the capital region.
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