A new migration route - cycling from Russia into Norway
Source: BBC
By Nick Holland BBC News, Russia-Norway border
23 October 2015
Hundreds of migrants have cycled into Norway from Russia after finding a new route into Europe that avoids the deadly Mediterranean crossing. They are not allowed to cross the Arctic border on foot, so a lucrative trade in bicycles has opened up, with migrants buying bikes and pedalling the final few metres.
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"You rode a children's bicycle?" I ask.
"Yes, yes," He replies. "One for kids."
He smiles and then starts to laugh before taking another drag on his cigarette. He is from Algeria and speaks in broken English. He is one of an increasing number of migrants travelling overland into Russia and then north into the Arctic Circle to the point where the borders meet. In the whole of 2014 just seven asylum seekers crossed over the Storskog border crossing. In October alone there have been 1,100. Some are from Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon but most are from Syria.
They need a bicycle because the Russian authorities don't let people cross the Russian border on foot. Under Norwegian law, it is illegal for a driver to carry people into the country without the proper papers.................
Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34602208
Life jackets at some places--bikes at others.
The authorities take them from the border to the town by bus, so the bicycles get left behind at the border.
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