Budget cuts to close four refugee reception centres

Immigration Service wants to house asylum-seekers in apartments – closure of Punavuori centre in Helsinki unexpected

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The Punavuori refugee reception centre in Helsinki, as well as the Kontiolahti and Kontioniemi centres in the east of Finland are to be shut down by late June. In addition, the temporary contract for the Paimio reception centre in the southwest of Finland expires at the end of the year and is not to be renewed.
      The closures are linked with cuts in the national budget, as well as a decline in the number of asylum-seekers. The Finnish Immigration Service is expected to save about EUR 20 million in refugee reception costs.
      The elimination of reception capacity for about 500 people should save EUR 4.7 million.
     
The number of asylum-seekers arriving in Finland has declined considerably from 6,000 a few years ago, to a projected 3,000 this year.
      In the early autumn it appeared that there might be a rise in the number of people seeking refugee status in Finland.
      Just over a month ago the assessment of the Immigration Service was that there would be no need for an extensive closure of refugee reception centres next year.
     
Staff at the Punavuori reception centre in central Helsinki are especially amazed at the announcement that the facility, which was set up two years ago at the initiative of the Ministry of the Interior, would be shut down.
      Jorma Vuorio, Director-General of the Finnish Immigration Service, says that the unit, which has a capacity for 170 people, is no longer needed. The reception centres in Helsinki have been operating at about 50 per cent capacity.
      Paavo Voutilainen, the director of social services at the City of Helsinki, said that he was surprised that the ministry wanted to close the Punavuori centre and not the one in Kyläsaari, which is in worse condition, and which is scheduled to be shut down in 2015 in any case.
     
Setting up the Punavuori centre at a former hotel on Uudenmaankatu cost about a million euros. Voutilainen said that the process involved a “furious fight”, as some nearby residents were opposed to the project.
      Where the current residents of the centre are to be housed, remains unknown. The 26 employees of the centre were told of the decision on Tuesday. They have fixed-term contracts which expire at the end of the year.
      “It seems short-sighted. Costly repairs have just been implemented here, and the neighbours have grown used to it”, says Tiina Kumpulainen, who has a permanent post in Kyläsaari, which means that she will not be among those losing her job.
     
At the beginning of November, 85 per cent of housing units at existing reception centres were in use. Vuorio is convinced that even with a 90 per cent capacity rate it would be possible to fit asylum seekers in the facilities that remain.
      However, the assumption is that the number of arrivals will not grow. There are also moves afoot to make the processing of asylum seekers through the system more efficient than before.
     
Vuorio also says that the refugee reception process is to be based on housing in rental apartments.
      “It is more flexible and cost-effective, especially as local authorities will be able to put empty municipal housing into use”, he says. Such a system would also require less personnel than is now the case.
      Some of Finland’s 20 reception centres already make use of rental housing.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Helsinki to set up two new refugee reception centres (13.3.2009)
  Neighbours not panicked by prospect of refugee reception centre (29.1.2009)
  Two Helsinki hotels to be converted into refugee reception centres (23.1.2009)

See also:
  Interior Minister promises cost-savings from tightened immigration regulations (11.10.2011)
  Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen: Some reception centres will be facing closure (2.9.2011)

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