HS Home 26.11.2002 - Increasing numbers of asylum-seekers get police escort out of Finland

By Hannele Tulonen

Finnish police have escorted a total of 633 people out of Finland this year. Many of those involved were rejected asylum-seekers; the largest single group to leave at one time were the Romanians who were sent back home in the early summer. The group also includes foreigners who have been refused entry into Finland, as well as deported criminals.

The number of asylum-seekers has been growing, and Finnish officials have been thinking of ways to encourage those waiting for a decision that is likely to be negative, and those whose applications have been rejected, to leave voluntarily by their own means.

A working group

was set up early this year to consider the issue. However, the group is not expected to come up with any concrete proposals before its mandate runs out at the end of the year. The group's chairwoman, Annikki Vanamo-Alho, will have to ask for an extension of at least six months.

The working group has been collecting material and visiting refugee reception centres, but the proposal for a new law on foreigners has demanded much of the time of the members of the group. As the draft legislation now stands, there is no mention yet about the voluntary return of asylum-seekers. Vanamo-Alho says that a separate paragraph on voluntary return will be added later to the proposal.

The main purpose of the working group is not to draft new legislative proposals, but to draw up practical instructions on arranging return travel.

A proposal for a new law on foreigners is to go before Parliament in mid-December, says Interior Ministry official Lauri Kantola.

Escort travel

has become an increasing burden on Finnish police, notes Kari Koivuniemi of the police section of the Ministry of the Interior. In 2001 police made 210 trips to escort 283 people to destinations in a total of 81 countries. Koivuniemi says that in 2000 the budget for police escort travel was just over a million euros. In 2001 it had gone up to about a million and a half, and this year more than two million euros will be needed for these kinds of travel expenses.

In 1998 the costs were just over half a million euros.

Of those who were escorted

out of the country, 23 were taken to Germany, 13 to Lithuania, and 12 to Estonia. Those sent to Russia are not included in the figures: the few dozen who are deported there are generally just brought to the border, or are placed on a train to St. Petersburg or Moscow.

There are usually two officers escorting each individual person. Airline safety regulations require at least two escorts, although compromises are sometimes made when a family is involved: not every child needs two security guards.

Of those escorted out of the country last year about half were asylum-seekers whose applications were rejected, while the other half were deported or refused entry because of criminal activity or other reasons.

The working group has considered the possibility that those escorting undesirable aliens out of the country need not be police. Hannu Siljamäki of the Finnish Frontier Guard opposes such an idea. He notes that airlines insist on a police escort for safety reasons.

Siljamäki points out that it is possible for social workers or doctors to go along in addition to the police.

Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 24.11.2002