Languages

Postpones cash to Storskog border check-point

Storskog border check-point.

“Longer opening, better capacity at Storskog” was promised in the political platform by Norway’s new coalition government last autumn. Not so any more.

Location

Queues at Norway’s only border-crossing to Russia might get longer than ever before as traffic is boosting.

Chief of Police in Eastern Finnmark, Ellen Katrine Hætta, fears it will be difficult to fulfil the commitments in the Schengen agreement without better infrastructure. 

“This can be problematic in the future. We know that criminals are already exploiting traffic peaks,” she says to BarentsObserver. 

Announcing the state budget 2015 on Wednesday, the Conservative and Progress party Government grants zero funding to the long-awaited new check-point on Norway’s border to Russia in the north.

The current border check-point was built in the early 90ies with a capacity of up to 150,000 annual crossings. Last year, more than the doubled got their passports stamped, expected to be even higher this year. Long queues for the travellers and unpleasant working conditions for immigration and customs officers are the results. 

Entering office last autumn, Norway’s coalition Government presented a political platform, an agreement with two of the other political parties in the Parliament clearly stating that extended opening hours and better capacity at Storskog would come.

Awaiting concept study
“This is one of our main priorities that you are not seeing the kind of queues you see now,” said Foreign Minister Børge Brende interviewed by BOTV last autumn.

Ellen Katrine Hætta is Chief of Police in Eastern Finnmark.

Ellen Katrine Hætta regrets that there is no funding to Storskog. As Chief of Police, she is in charge of both border and immigration control.

“I observe that there is no funding to Storskog border check-point. That is of course regrettable, but at the same time I have great respect for the Government’s decision to study different concepts so that result in the end will be of good quality,” says Ellen Katrine Hætta.

In the state budget, the Government says such study will be ready by spring 2015. 

“I want the border control to be a positive experience for the travellers, something it is not today. Also, the employees should get better working conditions at the check-point,” argues the Chief of Police.

In peak-hours, cars are lined up all across the actual border gate from Russia and the queues for indoor passport control is so long that travellers are forced to wait outdoor. Temperatures mid-winter can be down to below minus 30 degrees Celsius. 

Should be open around the clock
Queue and chaos at Storskog triggered the the Norwegian Parliament’s Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence to call on the Government in 2012 to take action. “Construction of a brand new and modern border checkpoint to Russia must start in 2013,” the Committe said.

Storskog border check-point (and subsequently the Russian check-point Borisoglebsk) is today closing by night, hindering cross-border trade and business traffic at western Europe’s northernmost land border road to Russia. The border closes at 9 pm Norwegian time and does not open again before 7 am. 

In 2010, the Norwegian Parliament’s Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defense made a call to keep the border check-point open around the clock. Since then, nothing has happened. 

Rune Rafaelsen is head of the Norwegian Barents Secretariat and a frequent traveler over the border.

Disappointed
Head of the Norwegian Barents Secretariat, Rune Rafaelsen, is disappointed. 

“A new border check-point should have been built years ago. Facilitating for easier border-crossings between Norway and Russia is important for the people-to-people contacts,” says Rune Rafaelsen to BarentsObserver.

He argues that such contact and travel among ordinary people is of especial importance nowadays when the political climate between east and west are more problematic.