Finland considers establishing larger accommodation centres for refugees

Finnish authorities are now considering establishing large processing centres for refugees arriving in the country, the Interior Ministry confirmed in a press release on Wednesday.

Only a few days ago Interior Minister Petteri Orpo told national broadcaster Yle that he would rather not see the establishment of such processing centres that could temporarily hold thousands of people.

So far Finland has used fairly small facilities, named reception centres, which house usually 200 or 300 refugees each for the duration of waiting for the decisions concerning their eligibility to remain in Finland.

Orpo said earlier that these fairly small reception centres are more humane to the arrivals.

The processing centres could accommodate thousands of refugees in one location and the facilities would be installed for temporary use. The processing centres would also handle registration. The Finnish legislation on arriving aliens allows the establishment of such centres upon a decision of the cabinet.

Finnish officials have said around 200 refugees are arriving in Finland per day. Their registration and police interviews have faced capacity problems at least in Oulu, northern Finland, where the police deal with those arriving via land route from Sweden. Endit