The Ministry of Labour is considerably expanding the housing capacity of Finland's refugee reception centres following the sudden surge of Romanian asylum seekers.

   

Capacity at five reception centres has been increased from 2,100 beds to 2,650. The move came after the centres started filling up to more than 90% capacity.

   

"After the expansion we will not be living on the edge, even though there certainly will be much work to do", says Sirkku Päivärinne of the Ministry of Labour.

   

Päivärinne does not expect that any new reception centres will be set up. If the flow of Romanians continues unabated the ministry says that it can further increase the number of beds in the existing centres.

The housing capacity

of refugee reception centres was increased a few years ago, when large numbers of Roma asylum seekers from Slovakia and Poland began arriving in Finland.

   

After the passage of a law allowing the rapid return of asylum seekers whose applications appeared groundless, the Ministry of Labour was able to shut down some refugee reception centres and reduce the size of others.

   

Finland now has 14 refugee reception centres, down from 20 in the 1990s.

The refugee reception centres provide

temporary housing for asylum seekers, as well as a number of other services, including interpreters, and health care.

   

The Directorate of Immigration has implemented fast-track processing of the asylum applications, which means that negative decisions come within an average three weeks. The police implement the deportation orders eight days after an applicant has been informed of the decision. All of the asylum applications processed so far have been rejected as apparently groundless.

   

This means that the Romanian asylum seekers would usually stay in Finland for slightly more than a month. In some cases, however, the process has taken longer.

   

About 400 Romanian asylum seekers have arrived in Finland since early April. Normally, about 30 Romanian citizens apply for asylum in Finland during a full year.