Migrant crisis: Asylum seekers using bikes to enter Europe at remote Norway border post

151 people have crossed the border this year near the town of Kirkenes

A trickle of asylum seekers from Syria and the Mediterranean region have found an unlikely route to western Europe: through Russia to a remote Arctic border post in Norway.

Police Chief Inspector Goeran Stenseth revealed that 151 people had crossed the border so far this year near the northeastern Norwegian town of Kirkenes, 1,550 miles northeast of Oslo. Most are from Syria, with some from Turkey and Ukraine. The majority cross in motor vehicles but some cycle to the Storskog border post – which, after a Norwegian-Russian agreement, is not open to pedestrians.

“There have been about 100 during the past two months, at least 50 in July and looks like August will be much the same,” the inspector said. But it was getting colder by the day. “Soon no one will be able to bike.”

Officials in the Norwegian capital, Oslo, said they had no information about asylum seekers arriving from the Arctic.

Associated Press