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At the auction in Lapland, the highest price for a bicycle was 220 euros.
Bicycles abandoned by asylum seekers crossing the Russian border into Finnish Lapland were sold at an auction in Sala on Saturday.
A Similar auctions It was held in early spring this year in Vaalima, in southeastern Finland, bordering Russia.
There were 190 bikes and one scooter for sale this weekend, with around 200 people on hand at most.
Senior Customs Inspector Timo SivolaHe, who works as an auction broker, told Yle that the highest price for a bike was 220 euros, with most bikes selling for between 30 and 60 euros.
Sivola said all the bikes have found buyers.
“It can be said that all the bikes have been sold as all of them have been offered, but at this stage we don’t know if they will all be collected,” Sivola added.
One of the cheapest bikes was bought by a 13-year-old Ugo Kivipro He bought a bicycle at the auction for 1.24 euros including VAT.
The bicycles currently on sale were handed over to Finnish customs at the Salla and Raja-Jooseppi border checkpoints last autumn and winter.
Bikes imported from Russia (outside the EU) must be cleared through customs or surrendered to the state.
The asylum seekers who showed up at Finland’s eastern border last fall all arrived on bicycles because Russia adheres to an outdated agreement under which border crossings are only possible by car, not on foot.
However, Finland has long banned the use of bicycles to cross the border, and asylum seekers have abandoned their bicycles upon arriving at the border crossing.
Finland’s amendment Border Law Bill allowing border authorities to turn back asylum seekers is set to take effect on Monday.
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