Finland Times

 

Man working at refugee reception center.File Photo – Lehtikuva.

The Perussuomalaiset (Finns Party) has not accepted the European Union interior ministers’ preliminary decision to transfer asylum seekers from the Mediterranean countries to other EU countries.

 

According to the decision, Finland is to receive 792 asylum seekers who crossed the Mediterranean to the shores of Europe over a period of two years.

 

Finns Party chair Timo Soini, who had just embarked on a holiday, in a text message told news agency STT that the EU is not following its own rules.

 

According to Soini, who is also the country’s foreign minister, asylum applications should be processed as by the Dublin Regulation in the country where the asylum seekers arrive. 

 

“The Finns Party believes this to be a wrong decision and works as a pulling factor for human traffickers and smugglers. The decision complicates resolution of the matter and leads to additional significant costs,” Soini remarked.

 

Perussuomalaiset Chair Timo Soini. File Photo – Lehtikuva.

The Finns Party, according to Soini, will constantly oppose this decision.

 

Sampo Terho, the chair of the party’s parliamentary group, said internal transfer of the asylum seekers within the EU should not be possible. Terho, however, admitted that their pressure in Italy and Greece is heavy.

 

Terho suggested that temporary financial assistance from the EU budget could be availed to countries dealing with a huge number of asylum applications. 

 

“Let us hope that the situation is temporary. Many different types of operations and methods have been developed to treat the real causes of the crisis, but it has never been dealt with by just distributing the applicants forward,” Terho said adding that the real causes of these crises must be resolved.

 

Among the EU countries, Germany intends to receive the highest number of asylum seekers. Germany will be welcoming 10,500 asylum seekers over two years.

 

France, for instance, is to take 6,752 asylum seekers, Sweden 1,369, and Estonia 130.

 

The EU interior ministers reached a preliminary agreement to relocate 32,000 asylum seekers.