Thors open to changes to immigration legislation

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Minister of Migration and European Affairs Astrid Thors is willing to accept changes made in Parliament to proposed legislation on foreigners.
      In the Parliament’s Administration Committee, representatives of the two largest government parties, the National Coalition Party, and the Centre, were most adamant to make changes to the government’s first draft.
      “There are always difficulties in finding definitions that please everyone. Now we have found another way”, Thors said at a press conference on Monday.
     
One of the difficult issues in the bill involved the conditions under which a foreigner could be granted a residence permit on the basis of a need for humanitarian protection. The matter will come before the full Parliament next year.
     A majority on the Administration Committee felt that the government’s draft would have excessively altered the practice that has been use in the Finnish legal system. The committee’s chairman Tapani Tölli (Centre) says that the changes to the original proposal will keep current practice unchanged.
     “There is nothing dramatic here. The government has put forward its proposal, and we as a committee looked into it and saw a need for alterations. In addition, we have reached understanding”, Tölli said.
      He emphasised that a petition opposing changes in the present law has not affected the process.
     
The government’s original proposal had sparked criticism in advance.
     Before the changes were made to the draft, Social Democratic MP Kari Rajamäki, who served as the minister responsible for foreigners’ affairs in the previous government, had said that Finland was getting Europe’s most liberal policy on immigration.
     Thors feels that the law that is coming will be at a “good average European level”.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Government immigration bill seen as too lenient by government party MPs (11.12.2008)

Helsingin Sanomat