Finland not to increase refugee quota | national

Sat, 13 Jun, 2015 12:09:31 AM

FTimes – STT Report, Jun 13

In this video grab released by the Italian Coast Guards (Guardia Costiera) on June 7, 2015 migrants sit on a boat during a rescue operation off the coast of Sicily as part of the Frontex-coordinated Operation Triton. Nearly 3,500 migrants were rescued on June 6, 2015 from 15 boats off the coast of Libya, Italy's coastguard said. The boats -- nine wooden boats thought to be converted fishing vessels and six large rubber dinghies -- were all found drifting around 45 miles off the Libyan coast after issuing distress calls via satellite phone on Saturday morning, the coastguard said. Photo – AFP / Lehtikuva.

Finland would not be raising the annual refugee quota as per the measure proposed by the EU Commission.

The parliamentary Grand Committee on Friday approved the government's position in this regard where the authority decided that the internal transfers should be based on a voluntary basis.

According to the government, the number of refugee quota of the last few years should be maintained through the so called emergency mechanism situation where additional refugees are to be taken from Greece and Italy.

Finland annual refugee quota is set between 750 and 1050.

The EU Commission has urged Finland to take just under 800 asylum seekers in two years from Greece and Italy who arrived across the Mediterranean Sea.

Interior Minister Petteri Orpo was going to a meeting of the Grand Committee in Helsinki on Friday. Photo – Lehtikuva.

According to the estimation of the Ministry of the Interior, 75 percent of these applicants would be granted residence permits.

Due to the difficult situation in Italy and Greece, the EU Commission plans to resettle the asylum seekers among the member states.

It seems obvious that the majority of the member states are ready to accept the proposal, according to the Interior Minister Petteri Orpo.

"The future asylum seekers arriving from Mediterranean Sea pose an economic impact to Finland, so we have to reduce the number of quota refugee," Orpo said.

According to the ministry's provisionally estimates, the cost of asylum seekers in the country is at least 4.5 million euros.

Finland Times