[LINK] "Migrants find a new route to Norway, through the Arctic on bicycles"
The Arctic route described last month by the Associated Press' Matti Huuhtanen is more of a novelty than a common route.
As Europe grapples with record-breaking numbers of migrants, a trickle of asylum seekers from Syria and the Mediterranean region have found an unlikely route: Through Russia to a remote Arctic border post in Norway, partly on bicycles.
Police Chief Inspector Goeran Stenseth said Monday that 151 people have crossed the border this year near the northeastern Norwegian town of Kirkenes, 2,500 kilometres (1,550 miles) northeast of Oslo.
He said that most of the migrants are from Syria, with some from Turkey and Ukraine, and that they mainly cross in motor vehicles although some have resorted to arriving on bicycles because the Storskog border post is not open to pedestrians, in line with a Norwegian-Russian border agreement.
"There have been about 100 during the past two months, at least 50 in July and looks like August will be much the same," he told The Associated Press. "But the conditions will be bad soon. It's getting colder by the day ... Soon no one will be able to bike, that's for sure."
As Europe grapples with record-breaking numbers of migrants, a trickle of asylum seekers from Syria and the Mediterranean region have found an unlikely route: Through Russia to a remote Arctic border post in Norway, partly on bicycles.
Police Chief Inspector Goeran Stenseth said Monday that 151 people have crossed the border this year near the northeastern Norwegian town of Kirkenes, 2,500 kilometres (1,550 miles) northeast of Oslo.
He said that most of the migrants are from Syria, with some from Turkey and Ukraine, and that they mainly cross in motor vehicles although some have resorted to arriving on bicycles because the Storskog border post is not open to pedestrians, in line with a Norwegian-Russian border agreement.
"There have been about 100 during the past two months, at least 50 in July and looks like August will be much the same," he told The Associated Press. "But the conditions will be bad soon. It's getting colder by the day ... Soon no one will be able to bike, that's for sure."