Minister of Migration says Finland could face pressures to accept more refugees

Astrid Thors

print this

Minister of Migration and European Affairs Astrid Thors (Swedish People's Party) has doubts that the European Union could create a common EU asylum system by 2012.
      This could lead to increasing pressures to accept more refugees to Finland.
      ”Those countries behaving decently will be facing more pressure if there is no joint scheme”, Thors said on Monday in Brussels.
      The European Commission is currently urging that the member-states should take more refugees from third countries.
      This so-called resettlement programme aims at a common European asylum system. At present, participation in the programme is voluntary.
     
Finland does not intend to accept more refugees. Finland is already today one of those few countries who accept quota refugees.
      In 2009, Finland’s quota is 750. Sweden, the current holder of the European Union’s rotating presidency, has the largest number of quota refugees, namely 2,000.
      The number of asylum-seeker minors arriving in Sweden is also considerably larger than that coming to Finland.
      In 2009, the number of minors applying for asylum in Sweden was 1,300 by the end of August, while the corresponding figure for Finland was 400.
      Thors feels that it is wrong that Finland is often spoken about as the favourite destination of minor asylum-seekers.
      ”At present refugees are arriving in Finland at a slower pace than before”, said Thors on Monday, speaking at a meeting of immigration ministers in Brussels.
      Those minors who come to Nordic countries from third countries typically seek for asylum, while those who go to Southern European countries often end up in black labour markets straight away.
     
It is difficult and expensive to establish the ages of minors and to track down their families. Moreover, if the parents can be found, often they are also accepted to Finland.
      The rules are much stricter in many other EU countries. Minor asylum-seekers have been transferred to orphanages that have been founded in the countries of departure, from where the parents of these minors have taken them back home.
      Tobias Billström, the Swedish Migration and Asylum Policy Minister, says that the European Union should have a joint programme which could be used to solve the problem of underage asylum-seekers.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Young Afghan asylum-seekers heading for Nordic countries through Paris (21.4.2009)
  Minister Thors: Accepting prisoners to be considered case by case (27.1.2009)
  Warming climate could bring many refugees to Finland (5.5.2008)

Links:
  Finnish Immigration Service
  Ministry of the Interior, Minister of Migration and European Affairs Astrid Thors
  Swedish EU Presidency: Joint EU Resettlement Programme

Helsingin Sanomat