According to the Finnish Frontier Guard, more than half of all asylum seekers in Finland had entered Finland earlier and later tried to apply for asylum in Sweden or some other European Union country. Under current practice applicants arriving from another EU country are routinely returned to the first country in the EU that they entered.

Most of those

who are sent back are citizens of Russia and Belarus who had been given a tourist visa at a Finnish consulate, allowing them free access to the Schengen countries.

   

Under the EU's Dublin Treaty, such asylum seekers can be returned to the first EU country that they entered.

   

According to Major Janne Piiroinen of the Helsinki section of the Finnish Frontier Guard the number of people sent back under the Dublin Treaty has been on the increase.

   

This week six people have been sent back to Finland from The Netherlands and a few others from Stockholm. Those sent back by the Dutch had originally travelled to Finland on a tourist visa and moved on, waiting until they got to The Netherlands before submitting an asylum application. Those who were sent back from Stockholm on Thursday denied ever having been in Finland.

A small number of arrivals

first submit an asylum application in Finland after which they move on to another EU country where they apply again. They are also routinely returned to the country of entry into the EU.

   

Piiroinen believes that some of the arrivals wait until they get to another country before applying for asylum because they have relatives living in that country.

   

"It could also be that some feel that some other country would be more pleasant than Finland. Perhaps they consider the possibilities for earning a living better in some other country, or that it is more expedient to submit the application somewhere else."

If a person who is returned

to Finland applies for asylum in this country the application is received at the border. After the applicant's identity is established, he or she is sent to a refugee reception centre, such as that in Kyläsaari in Helsinki.

   

The applicant is investigated by the police or the Directorate of Immigration. If the process is expected to be a long one, the applicant is sent to a refugee reception centre somewhere outside Helsinki.

   

If the applicant's identity is in doubt, he or she is detained by police until that issue is cleared up.

   

Sometimes an asylum application can be processed as quickly as three weeks. However, in some cases the process can take between six months to a year.

   

Some of those who are sent back to Finland from another EU country decide to return to their home country without applying for asylum in Finland.

   

"We let them go back, we naturally do not prevent them from travelling home. If the arrivals have money, they pay for their travel themselves. If not, the trip home is paid by the Finnish state."

   

Piiroinen adds that those who go back home are asked to sign a statement according to which the departure was voluntary.

   

At the Directorate of Immigration, Matti Heinonen, who is responsible for issues relating to the Dublin and Schengen treaties questions that the Frontier Guards' estimate that more than half of asylum seekers in Finland had been returned to this country from another EU country. However, he does agree that the number of such cases is on the increase.

The greatest number of asylum seekers

are returned from Sweden, and most of those who are returned are of Russian origin. When they come back to Finland many decide to return home instead of applying for asylum in this country: Heinonen says that they know that those submitting an asylum application that is found to be groundless face a two year ban on travel to Finland.