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Roundup: Increased rejection of applications by Iraqi asylum seekers cause tension in Finnish reception centres

Xinhua, August 6, 2016 Adjust font size:

Internal tensions in Finnish asylum seekers reception centres have increased as the inhabitants there have started receiving predominantly negative decisions, according to the Finnish Migration Authority.

Senior inspector Kati Vahtera on Friday confirmed a violent incident in a centre in Kotka, southeastern Finland earlier this week. A man of Iraqi background stabbed two fellow inmates and held a knife on the neck of a third, but no fatalities were reported.

Vahtera said to Finnish national broadcaster Yle that such severe incidents are "not totally unusual" but fairly rare.

Following the decision of Finnish parliament in May 2016 to toughen the criteria for staying in Finland, the number of negative decisions for Iraqi asylum seekers has increased steeply.

From the start of the influx of Iraqis last year until June this year, 28 percent of Iraqi applications were rejected, but from June until now the rate of rejection suddenly rose to 77 percent.

The trend of issuing residence permits has not changed retroactively, which means that those who received responses earlier had a better chance of staying than those reaching the process now, even if some of them had arrived at the same time.

Vahtera said that when several negative decisions reach a centre at the same time, the mood may become bitter. Recent fights and skirmishes in the centers have nearly always been between the inhabitants and not directed against the staff of the facility.

Arja Vainio, the regional Red Cross director for Southeastern Finland, told Yle that the incident in Kotka was not a surprise.

She said the alleged stabber, an Iraqi born in 1989, had been suffering from psychiatric problems.

Vainio said that the refugees are only eligible for acute level mental care, and thus not all symptoms lead to further treatment and diagnostics.

In May this year, Finnish parliament deleted the category of humanitarian protection from the Finnish Alien's Act and the Migration Authority also changed the specific criteria regarding Iraq.

As a result, refugees can be sent back if they are considered to be able to resettle in another part of Iraq, although the area they came from may be risky. The concept of "internal escape within Iraq" has caused public debate in Finland.

Out of the the total 32,000 asylum seekers in Finland in 2015, 20,000 were from Iraq. The number of arrivals from Iraq in 2016 has been 700. As of early June, 10,000 Iraqis were still awaiting for the decision their fate. Endit