Record numbers of underage asylum seekers arrive in Finland recently

Last week 47 young people applied for asylum - in 2007 the figure was 96 for the entire year

print this

The Finnish Immigration Service reports that last week more than 47 underage asylum seekers arrived in Finland without a parent or guardian.
      “That is a very large number, when we compare it with all of last year, when there were 96 minors among asylum seekers”, says Susanne Tengman of the Finnish Immigration Service.
      The number of applicants has been growing, but the surge in the recent weeks has experts mystified.
     
Most of last week’s new arrivals are from Somalia and Iraq. Twenty three of them have been interviewed by Helsinki police, and young asylum applicants have also arrived in Turku and Oulu.
      “Based on descriptions they have probably come from Sweden. They often say that an unknown smuggler has accompanied them from Dubai, via some intermediary stops, to Sweden, from where they have then come to Finland”, says Arvo Mäntykenttä of the immigration unit of the Helsinki police.
      Jorma Vuorio, director of the Finnish Immigration Service, says that the likely reason for the situation is the tougher asylum policy taken by Sweden, which has led to a rise in the number of applications for asylum in Sweden and Norway.
     
The growth has raised suspicions of organised crime and the use of “anchor children”, whose parents send them to seek asylum in a Western country. The implication is that young immigrants will later sponsor citizenship for family members who are still abroad.
      “The fact is that if and when an underage child is granted asylum, virtually all of them submit an application for family unification”, says Ilkka Pernu of the Oulu police.
      “Some arranging of illegal immigration has taken place. In the Oulu area there are 3-4 cases in which someone has transported people, for instance”, Pernu says.
      “It has increased. Children and young people don’t know how to get here on their own. Smuggling is a very profitable business”, Mäntykenttä says.
     
A proposal for tests to determine the age of asylum applicants is raising controversy.
      “We have conducted some of them, but I don’t know how much the Immigration Service has made use of them. They will not solve this problem”, Mäntyniemi says.
      Pernu, for his part, believes that the tests will make it easier to find those who are legally adults, and who are lying about their age.
      Age tests involve examining development of the teeth and wrist bones.
      Because of the large number of applicants, refugee reception centres that had been closed down a couple of years ago because of declining numbers of asylum seekers have now been re-opened.
     
The number of underage asylum seekers has already topped 300 this year, and it is expected to go over 400 by year's end, a massive increase of nearly 300% from the 2007 figure.
      The majority of underage arrivals are boys aged 15 to 17, while only a few of the unaccompanied applicants are small children.
      Most frequently, children seeking asylum arrive in the European Union area using a passport that belongs to somebody else, or seek entry entirely without travel documents.
     
     


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Number of children seeking asylum close to record (18.8.2008)

Links:
  Finnish Immigration Service (MIGRI)
  Ministry of the Interior: Unaccompanied minor asylum seekers

Helsingin Sanomat