Finland Times

The Finnish Immigration Authority (Migri) has started to arrange new interviews for those already accepted as refugees in Finland, media reported on Saturday.

Newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet (HBL) quoted unidentified Migri sources as saying that the repeated interviews are now done to meet government policy demands.

The Finnish refugee policy program from last December requires Migri to cancel residence permits if the need for protection no longer exists.

Explaining the overall system, Matti Makarainen, division head at Migri, told the newspaper that refugee status can be cancelled, if a person would no longer need protection in his or her homeland.

Other reasons can be that "the refugee has returned to visit the home country and come back", or "has given misleading information earlier".

Makarainen said various investigations are started to verify if the need for protection still exists. "Mostly it concerns people from Iraq, but also Somalis."

However, if the refugee has already been given permanent residency permit in Finland, changed circumstances in the country of origin would not change the status in Finland. Permanent residents of alien extraction can only be evicted on account of criminality or security concerns.

Reports about reruns of interviews came some days after a demonstration by hundreds of asylum seekers outside the Migri head offices in Helsinki.

In the wake of media reports about hasty decisions by Migri, Interior Minister Paula Risikko said "quality must precede speed" in the processing.

Statistics gathered by newsmagazine Suomen Kuvalehti last week indicated Finland is at the top of EU countries in dismissing applications from Iraqis.

In recent months, only 15 percent of Iraqis have obtained a right to stay in Finland. In Sweden and Belgium, a half have been allowed to remain this year and in Germany 78 percent. However, non-EU Norway is stricter than Finland with only 12 percent of Iraqi applications accepted.

The organization of Somalis in Finland told HBL ten refugees of Somali background had just been called for a re-interview. Chairman Arshe Said told HBL his countrymen cannot be sent back to Somalia.