A Malaysian man and four Chinese youths he tried to smuggle into Finland with false passports were arrested in the Nordic country in early June, Finnish news agency STT reported yesterday.

The man, said to be part of a trafficking network linked to organised crime, was reportedly paid US$20,000 to take the Chinese youths from Thailand to Finland via Hong Kong and Russia.

They were arrested on June 1 at the Finnish border post of Vainikkala, 250km east of Helsinki.

Border guard officials contacted by AFP would not confirm the report.

Authorities concerned

A growing number of Chinese nationals have tried to enter Finland illegally in recent months according to media reports, including several who were recently turned back at Helsinki airport after they were found to have false identity documents, police said.

Finnish authorities have meanwhile expressed concern over the fact that dozens of Chinese asylum-seekers have gone missing from immigration centres, a phenomenon that has also occurred in other neighbouring Nordic countries.

Finland, and the European Union of which it is a member, shares a 1,340km border with Russia. More than five million border crossings are registered between the two countries every year.