Refugees queue in front of the Pasila police station in Helsinki on Monday September 14. Photo Lehtikuva.
Over a hundred asylum seekers queued out in front of Helsinki’s Pasila police station on Monday setting a record for this year, said Ilkka Koskimäki, deputy police chief of the Helsinki police department.
“Not the least because of fire safety regulations, people cannot be kept waiting in the lobby. Therefore, the people had to wait outside,” Koskimäki said.
According to Koskimäki, the majority of seekers are Iraqi, having come north by trains, cars and ships.
According to Koskimäki, the number of staff working on the asylum cases has nearly quadrupled, moving staff mainly from criminal investigations.
About fifty police officers have been transferred.
“With this number [of officers], we are able to deal with about 1,200 applications per month, and now the stack of asylum applications will start to diminish. If the number of seekers grow, then we’ll have to develop a new strategy,” said the police official.
According to Koskimäki, the police are still capable of dealing with other investigations.
