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Finland partly suspends processing of Iraqi, Somali asylum applications

Xinhua, September 30, 2015 Adjust font size:

Finland's immigration service announced on Wednesday that it would suspend processing applications made by Iraqi and Somali asylum seekers who are from more secure regions of their respective countries.

The authority said it would freeze decisions on applications made by people from the two countries due to the ongoing assessment of the security situation in Iraq and Somalia and in line with the practices made by other countries of the EU.

For example, presently, asylum seekers who are from Baghdad and surrounding regions, and the Somali capital of Mogadishu, are not being granted asylum in other member states of the EU.

"Our preliminary data on, for example, the decision practices in other EU states confirms our impression that the guidelines are to be made stricter," said Finland's immigration service in a press release.

According to the authority, 17,430 asylum seekers have arrived in Finland this year, among whom 69 percent were from Iraq and 10 percent from Somalia. Endit