Helsinki ready to expand reception facilities for asylum seekers

print this

The chairwoman of Helsinki’s City Board, Suvi Rihtniemi (Nat. Coalition Party) says that there was general agreement on Monday that the city must set up more places for asylum seekers coming to Finland. The matter was left on the table.
      “Some confusion was caused on the City Board by reports that the reception centre in Kyläsaari would be shut down. The present facilities are in poor condition, in the view of the Department of Social services”, Rihtniemi says.
      A report on the matter will be drawn up on Monday.
     
The City Board has held discussions with state representatives on the possibility of making changes to the contract it has with the state on placing asylum seekers.
      The agreement means that housing needs to be arranged for 400 more asylum seekers than the city can accommodate at present.
      Helsinki currently has two reception centres. There is room for 233 asylum seekers in Kyläsaari, and 46 in Metsälä.
      If more asylum seekers come to Helsinki, more facilities will have to be established in Helsinki or elsewhere in the Helsinki region.
     
The City Board did not discuss the question of where the new reception centres would be set up. The Social Services Department has discussed the possibility of using two hotels to house the asylum seekers.
      The Marttahotelli on Uudemnaankatu, which has closed down as a hotel, and the Hotel Fenno on Kaarlenkatu, which will close down as a hotel in a few months, could be quickly taken into use for the purpose.
     
The National Coalition Party says that the hotels could be used temporarily as reception centres, and that the city should investigate other options as permanent locations.
      Jarmo Räihä, a leading expert at the Social Services Department, nevertheless sees the hotels as the only option, for all practical purposes, if the space is to be rapidly made available for housing the asylum seekers.
      The city owns a former mental hospital in Röykkä in Nurmijärvi, north of the city, which has been disused for more than ten years.
      “Turning it into a reception centre would require a massive and time-consuming renovation”, Räihä says.
      He will not give an opinion as to whether or not the remote location of the hospital would be appropriate for this purpose in other respects.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Two Helsinki hotels to be converted into refugee reception centres (23.1.2009)
  Surge of asylum seekers portends new record year (12.1.2009)
  Hotel or dorm is sought in Helsinki to accommodate growing number of asylum-seekers (4.12.2008)

Helsingin Sanomat