Norway is considering building a fence on the border with Russia

HELSINKI (AP) – Norway may put up a fence along part or all of the 198-kilometer (123-mile) border it shares with Russia, a minister said, in a move inspired by a similar project in its Nordic neighbor, Finland.

“The border fence is very interesting not only because it can act as a deterrent, but also because it contains sensors and technology that can detect whether people are approaching the border,” Justice Minister Emilie Enger Mehl said in an interview with Norwegian public broadcaster NRK posted this information late Saturday.

She said the Norwegian government was currently considering “several measures”. strengthen security on the border with Russia in the northern Arctic, such as fencing, increasing the number of border staff and intensifying monitoring.

The Storskog border station, which has seen only a few attempts to illegally cross the border over the last few years, is the only official border crossing to Norway from Russia.

If the security situation in the sensitive Arctic region deteriorates, the Norwegian government is ready to close the border at short notice, said Enger Mehl, who visited neighboring Finland this summer to learn about the entire 1,340 km (830 miles) Finnish land border. Russia has been closed.

The Finnish government was forced to close all border crossings from Russia to Finland at the end of 2023 after more than 1,300 third-country migrants without proper documents and visas – an extremely high number – entered the country in three months, just a few months after the Finnish government became a member of NATO.

To prevent Moscow from exploiting migrants, as the Finnish government calls for Russian “hybrid war” Helsinki is currently building fences totaling up to 200 kilometers (124 miles) in length in separate sections along the border area, which forms part of NATO’s northern flank and serves as the European Union’s external border.

Finnish border officials say the fences with top-of-the-range monitoring equipment – mainly located around border crossings – are needed to better monitor and control any migrants trying to cross from Russia and give officials time to respond.

Inspired by Finland’s project, Enger Mehl said that such a fence could also be a good idea for Norway. According to NRK, her statement was supported by police chief Ellen Katrine Hætta in the northern Norwegian county of Finnmark.

“This is a measure that could apply to all or part of the border” between Norway and Russia, Enger Mehl said.

The Storskog border station is currently surrounded by a 200-meter (660-foot) long and 3.5-meter (12-foot) high fence, erected in 2016 after about 5,000 migrants and asylum seekers crossed from Russia to Norway the previous year.

Norway, a country of 5.6 million people, is a member of NATO but is not part of the European Union. However, it is part of the EU’s Schengen area, whose participants have abolished border controls at their mutual borders, guaranteeing the free movement of citizens.