Finland Times

Parliament session on Thursday. Photo Lehtikuva.

The Government Thursday submitted its proposal for amending the Aliens Act to Parliament, specifying requirements for granting international protection.

 

According to the proposal, international protection would only be granted to those fulfilling the requirements laid down in EU and international law. Residence permits would no longer be issued on humanitarian grounds, said a press release of the Ministry of the Interior.

 

Thus far, those applying for international protection in Finland may have been granted asylum, or issued with a residence permit on the basis of subsidiary protection or humanitarian protection.

 

In all these three cases, the applicant is granted international protection. However, where the requirements for granting international protection are not met, a residence permit may be issued on compassionate grounds, according to the release.

 

The number of residence permits issued on humanitarian grounds has been very small. Last year's figure of 119 accounts for approximately seven per cent of all residence permits issued in Finland.

 

The amendment aims to bring the legislation in line with EU law and the relevant legislation in other member states. In future, the concept of international protection would be in compliance with Union legislation and refer to refugee status and subsidiary protection only, said the release.

 

The amendment would not affect any international obligations binding on Finland.

 

The procedure for serving decisions on applications for international protection, or 'asylum decisions', will be simplified through the amendment that should come into force without delay, according to the release.

 

Besides the police, the Finnish Immigration Service could directly notify applicants of its decisions other than those to remove a person from the country.

 

In practice, the Finnish Immigration Service would give notification of decisions to applicants who have been granted asylum. This amendment would save the resources of the authorities and speed up the procedure for serving asylum decisions now that their number is growing.

 

In addition, the collection of processing fees will be enhanced. It has been proposed that the authorities would not continue the processing of an application for asylum until the applicant has paid the chargeable processing fee.