Roundup: Finland to tighten policies on asylum seekers

The Finnish government published its action plan on asylum policies on Tuesday, sending a clear message of tightening up amid the ongoing refugee crisis.

The government said the plan was made in order to curb the uncontrolled influx of asylum seekers in the short term, to restrain asylum costs and to efficiently integrate new immigrants into the society.

Finland will also speed up the asylum and repatriation processes and make efforts in controlling the EU's external borders, it added.

In practice, for example, Finland will set up two repatriation centers to accommodate asylum seekers whose applications are rejected or who voluntarily leave Finland.

Both of the centers will be located in southern Finland and operate together with the existing refugee reception centers. The first one designed for voluntary returnees will open immediately, and the other one for rejected asylum seekers is set to open by the end of January next year.

Three refugee reception centers will be shut down. The centers are in Vantaa in southern Finland, Parikkala in southwest and Merikarvia in southwest of the country.

The Minister of Interior Petteri Orpo said earlier that the centers needed to be closed from the standpoint of security, as they were too far away from police operations.

At the same time, some new reception centers are planned in Kittila, Pello and Ylitornio in the northern part of the country.

The Finnish Immigration Service announced on Tuesday that Finland no longer grant subsidiary protection to all asylum seekers from South and East Afghanistan, as those areas are now classified as safe based on its updated assessment on the security situation.

The authority said it still considers certain provinces in South and East Afghanistan to be unsafe, but there are large areas in the country with no security threats.

The processing of asylum applications for Afghan nationals has been suspended since the beginning of November, waiting for the new security assessment.

On Monday, the immigration authority claimed that Finland is ready to refuse entry of or deport an asylum seeker who is guilty of a serious crime, whenever permitted by law.

Petteri Orpo said in a radio interview with the Finnish national broadcaster Yle on Tuesday that the new action plan on asylum policies aims to tighten the asylum policies of Finland and to improve the general security situation of Finland.

Orpo revealed that the government is also preparing legislative amendments, which designed to expel those asylum seekers, who commit aggravated crimes.

The amendments must be in line with the international commitments, such as the Geneva Convention on Refugees, emphasized the minister.

It is expected that some 30,000 asylum seekers will have arrived in Finland by the end of this year, a history record in this Nordic country with a population of just 5.5 million. Endit