Finland getting more asylum-seekers - sharp decline in other Nordic countries

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The number of new asylum-seekers arriving in Finland in the first half of 2004 was about 20% higher than at the same time last year. Meanwhile, there has been a sharp decline in applicants in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark.
      The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR, reports that the number of asylum applicants declined by 45% in Norway, by 30% in Denmark, and by 20% in Sweden. The trend is similar in many other industrialised countries. Nevertheless, the total number of applicants in Sweden and Norway remained significantly higher than in Finland.
      The UNHCR reports a 22% decline in the number of asylum applicants in the industrialised countries in the first half of this year compared with the same period in 2003. The level was the lowest in 17 years.
     
The number of asylum-seekers arriving in Finland from January through the end of March was 1,667, which is 271 more than in the first half of last year.
      In Norway the number of applicants went down from 7,188 in the first half of 2003 to 3,918 in the first half of 2004. In Denmark the decline was from 2,325 to 1,621, and in Sweden the figures were 14,140 and 11,397.
     
Finland’s Directorate of Immigration has not ascertained why the trend in Finland runs opposite to that in the other Nordic Countries.
      Jorma Peitsalo, head of the Refugee and Asylum Division of the Directorate of Immigration, notes that Denmark adopted tougher legislation toward foreigners two years ago, and that it is possible that there is a belief among asylum applicants that Sweden has done the same. He is at a loss to explain the decline in applications in Norway.
      He also observes that the number of applicants in Finland is relatively small, and an increase of a few hundred looks like a huge jump in terms of percentages.
      Peitsalo also points out that the processing of asylum applications has speeded up in Finland this year. "For that reason, in the future there may not be as many who come here, as they will know that their possibilities of being approved as refugees are slight", he says.
     
Large numbers of asylum-seekers have arrived in Northern Finland by crossing the Swedish and Norwegian borders.
      Preliminary figures from the Directorate of Immigration suggest that one in three asylum applications have been submitted to the police in either Oulu or Rovaniemi.
      The vast majority of these have already been refused asylum in some other EU country or Norway or Iceland. The national figure for such "repeat" asylum applicants is around 40% of the overall total.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Asylum application processing now fastest in Europe (26.8.2004)
  Backlog of asylum applications dismantled; new procedures lead to faster processing (4.5.2004)

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