Human trafficking network organises illegal entry of dozens of migrants into Finland

An international human trafficking network is suspected of organising illegal entry of dozens of migrants into Finland from December 2025 to April 2026, said Finnish Border Guard on Thursday.

The criminal group based in East Africa organised or attempted to organise the illegal entry of more than 40 people into Finland from Belarus using Finland as a transit to other European Union countries.

The Border Guard completed a preliminary investigation into the operation of the criminal network, which allegedly arranged the movement of third-country nationals.

The investigation found that people, who previously sought asylum in Latvia arrived in Finland either by air from Latvia or by sea via Estonia.

The authorities managed to prevent some of the trafficking moves while a significant number of immigrants managed to reach Finland and later moved to other EU member states.

Based on the investigation, Border Guard said that both the trafficked migrants and the suspected members of the criminal network were from East Africa.

At the initial stages of the operation, a total of 21 people entered or attempted to enter Finland from Riga Airport by 14 different Air Baltic flights from November 18, 2025 to January 14, 2026.

The network changed its way from January 24 2026 and first travelled from Latvia to Tallinn by train and then from Tallinn to Helsinki by ship.

Some of them were held at Tallinn and Helsinki ports while some others managed to reach Finland and continued their journey to Sweden via Haparanda and later from Sweden to other European countries.

Based on the preliminary investigation, it is suspected that the criminal network organized the travel of at least 25 people from Latvia to Finland or via Finland to other European countries.

One migrant was arrested in pre-trial detention during the investigation, and the case has been referred to prosecutors for consideration of charges.