Finland Times

The processing of asylum applications has been taking more and more time, said Esko Repo, director of the asylum unit at Finnish Immigration Service, on Wednesday.

According to Repo’s assessment, the Finnish Immigration Service will manage to process a total of around 4,500 asylum applications this year.

The total number of asylum seekers this year is estimated at around 15,000.

The Immigration Service is aiming to quickly deal with the congestion by processing those applications first which clearly require a positive or negative decision.

“If a person comes from a country where the general security situation is good and the person does not have personal grounds, the application will be processed quickly,” said Repo.

“Those which have to be investigated further will remain in the queue,” Repo explained.

Repo revealed that over 6,200 asylum seekers have arrived in the country this year.

The asylum unit director said it will not be possible to process the majority of asylum applications that have been lodged so far as well as the subsequent applications to be lodged this year by the end of the year.

New 30 employees recruited by the Immigration Service will begin to work in September. A further 70 new workers will be recruited by the end of next year.

“Additional resources are on the way and that is good; however, it is realistic that it will take some time before it starts to show,” Repo observed.

Asylum reception centres are full to capacity everywhere across the country.

Visa Knape, a senior officer at the Finnish Immigration Service, said the occupancy of the centres based on the most recent information was at 120 per cent.

The situation got worse in the middle of July. Knape does not believe that additional places are enough to accommodate 2,000 asylum seekers.