Finland partly suspends processing of Iraqi, Somali asylum applications | national

Thu, 01 Oct, 2015 12:06:02 AM

Finland partly suspends processing of Iraqi, Somali asylum applications

FTimes – Xinhua Report, Oct 1

The military watches as migrants from Iraq and Somalia were taken to Finland's new registration center on September 22, 2015, Swiftly put up in a former school building, in the northern border town of Tornio, on the Swedish-Finnish border the where all migrants arriving to the border through Sweden are now required to register. Busloads have in recent weeks been turning back to Sweden at the Haparanda-Tornio border crossing just an hour's drive south of the Arctic Circle, while Finnish Authorities see a rise in the number of canceled asylum applications. Photo – AFP / Lehtikuva.

The immigration service announced on Wednesday that it would suspend processing applications made by Iraqi and Somali asylum seekers who are from more secure regions of their respective countries.

The authority said it would freeze decisions on applications made by people from the two countries due to the ongoing assessment of the security situation in Iraq and Somalia and in line with the practices made by other countries of the EU.

For example, presently, asylum seekers who are from Baghdad and surrounding regions, and the Somali capital of Mogadishu, are not being granted asylum in other member states of the EU.

"Our preliminary data on, for example, the decision practices in other EU states confirms our impression that the guidelines are to be made stricter," said Finland's immigration service in a press release.

According to the authority, 17,430 asylum seekers have arrived in Finland this year, among whom 69 percent were from Iraq and 10 percent from Somalia.

Finland Times