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Afghanistan to take back asylum seekers rejected by Finland

Xinhua, October 5, 2016 Adjust font size:

Finland and Afghanistan have agreed on repatriation measures of rejected asylum seekers, the Finnish Ministry of the Interior announced on Tuesday.

Under the agreement, Afghanistan will admit its citizens that Finland has refused to give asylum to.

"When Afghanistan citizens consider leaving for Finland, they now realize they will be repatriated in the event they do not warrant international protection," an expert from the Finnish Foreign Ministry Pekka Hyvonen told Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat.

In the past two years, Afghans are the second largest group who have applied for asylum in Finland, only after Iraqis. Currently, Finland has no repatriation agreement with Iraq.

Last year, 5,214 Afghans asked for asylum in Finland, while the number has been 669 so far this year.

Juho Eerola, chairman of the Parliamentary Administrative Committee, told Finnish broadcaster Yle that he hoped "the agreement would function in practice."

Eerola said only one third of the applications by Afghans have been accepted so far.

Talks about the agreement between Finland and Afganistan began in May last year when a high-ranking Finnish delegation visited Afghanistan's Kabul.

By the end of August, 109 dismissed asylum seekers had voluntarily returned to Afghanistan from Finland. Endit