First batch of asylum seekers left Helsinki for Iraq. File Photo – Lehtikuva.
The Helsinki police have announced that the tenth returning asylum-seeker flight to Baghdad left Helsinki Airport on Thursday morning.
All of those on the return flights to Iraq have voluntarily withdrawn their asylum applications.
According to the police, the number of returnees has averaged around one hundred per flight.
The charter flights, arranged by the Helsinki Police Department, so far have returned nearly a thousand Iraqis to their homeland.
The police said the return decisions of asylum seekers and foreigners are made on a case-by-case basis.
The options for returnees is to leave the country voluntarily, leaving the country under the supervision of the authorities, or boarding the returnees in a scheduled or chartered flight directly back to their home countries.
