Finnish Border Guards solve more crimes
More than 5000 cases of border violations are handled every year by the Finnish Border Guard’s crime prevention unit
Since it was established in 2004, the unit has quickly expanded its operations, colonel Jussi Sainio told Finnish broadcaster Yle. The Finnish Border Guard now investigates practically all crimes that occur at the border, except drug crimes, he says.
-They include facilitation of unauthorised entry, border offences, human trafficking, forgeries, oil spills investigations and suspected drunk driving and water vehicle driving while intoxicated, he adds.
The Border guards now handle about 5,000 cases of crimes. The crime unit employs more than one hundred people.
The Border Guard has an extensive network of contact persons operating abroad. These contact persons can access public authorities’ databases, through which they do background checks on people applying for Finnish visas, Yle writes.
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Finland has a more than 1300 km long border to Russia. The country which is part of the EU border cooperation Frontex, is also the biggest issuer of Schengen visas to Russians. In 2010, about one million visas were issued by the country’s consular units in Russia.