Border-crossing No. 150.000 this year was marked with a ceremony at Salla on Monday afternoon.
Photo: Jouko Väisänen / Lapin rajavartiosto
Finnish border authorities made a special ceremony Monday afternoon as the number of border-crossings at Salla in Lapland were approaching 150.000 since the beginning of this year. Never before have so many people crossed the border between the Kola Peninsula and northern Finland.
The traffic over Salla has increased by 42 percent this year and by year-end, Finnish border authorities believes a total of 160.000 border-crossings will have taken place.
Daria got a teddy-bear, before she went on with her mother Elena and father Michael towards Santa Claus in Rovaniemi.
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The ceremony at the border was also attended by the Customs and local municipality representatives from Salla, the nearest village to the border.
3-year-old Daria Dzhambanova got a teddy bear from the Finnish border authorities.
Photo: Sointu Oinas / Lapin Kansa
Daria and her parents live in Murmansk. Rovaniemi tourism and shopping malls have had joint-marketing campaigns in Murmansk this autumn and as BarentsObserver has reported earlier, the number of visas issued to Finland in Murmansk have skyrocket over the last year.
In November, 15.157 border-crossings were counted at Salla, up from 11.030 the same month last year. Also at Finland’s northernmost border to Russia, Raja-Josseppi counts an increase compared with last year. Here, 8.187 border-crossings took place in November, according to the statistics posted at the portal of the Finnish border guard. In total, it is expected that Salla and Raja-Jooseppi will reach 260.000 border-crossings by New Year’s Eve.
