NATO’s newest member state, Finland, has begun erecting a 10ft tall, 124-mile, barbed-wire-topped wall on its eastern border with Russia. Contradicting their approach to Donald Trump’s plan for the U.S. southern border, the media seems quite keen on the anti-Russian barriers.

The Finnish government took the decision to establish the hard border following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Authorities claim Finland “needs to be less dependent on the Russian border control,” according to Jari Tolppanen, a Finnish Border Guard Brigadier General. The move was announced following Finland’s ascension to full NATO membership two weeks ago.

Preventing Illegal Immigration.

One critical purpose of the wall is to prevent illegal immigration from Russia, the Finnish border officials have argued.

Authorities wish to reduce the risk of Russian “ushering thousands of asylum-seekers – mostly from Iraq, Afghanistan, and other Middle East nations,” as Russia did between 2015-16. However, the numbers of those crossing the border have been consistently low in comparison to what the United States faces.

In 2022, according to Reuters, Finland detected just 30 illegal crossings and the Russians detected 800 people trying to cross the border. The United States, on the other hand, had in excess of 206,000 encounters at the southern border in November 2022 alone, and that is according to the lower-end, “official” figures.

Walls Work.

Nor is Finland alone alone in building a border wall, with Poland and the Baltic States long since been building international borders for security reasons.

In 2015, during the height of Europe’s now-normalized migrant crisis, the Hungarian government moved to hurriedly establish hard border fencing.

A 2018 U.S. Department of Homeland Security report read:

Walls Work. When it comes to stopping drugs and illegal aliens from crossing our borders, border walls have proven to be extremely effective. Border security relies on a combination of border infrastructure, technology, personnel and partnerships with law enforcement at the state, local, tribal, and federal level. For example, when we installed a border wall in the Yuma Sector, we have seen border apprehensions decrease by 90 percent. In San Diego, we saw on Sunday that dilapidated, decades-old barriers are not sufficient for today’s threat and need to be removed so new – up to 30 foot wall sections can be completed.

Finland’s project is expected to be concluded by the end of June 2023.