Some asylum-seekers are still ending up in police cells, even though a separate holding centre was set up in Helsinki in July 2002. The Ombudsman for Minorities, Mikko Puumalainen, does not believe a police cell is the correct place for the temporary holding of asylum-seekers.

   

In the latest incident, four Romanian men who applied for asylum in Sodankylä in northern Finland ended up in police custody. The men had sought asylum along with four women and twelve children.

   

Since Helsinki's asylum-seeker holding centre (designed for 30 people) was full, the men were taken to police cells in Lappeenranta instead.

   

Finnish law allows temporary placement of asylum-seekers in police cells if a detention centre is full.

Helsinki's asylum-seeker detention unit

is the only one of its kind in Finland. It is used for asylum-seekers whose identity or travel route to Finland is unclear, or who it is feared might take off and disappear before their status has been determined.

   

In the holding centre, asylum-seekers are not locked up in their rooms but can freely move about indoors, and daily supervised outdoor visits are also possible. According to Puumalainen, conditions for asylum-seekers who end up in police cells instead are not nearly as good.

   

"An asylum-seeker is not a criminal and therefore should not be placed in a police cell. This creates a wrong comparison", Puumalainen comments.

   

No figures were available on Tuesday for the number of asylum-seekers who had to be placed in police cells last year, nor was it possible to determine how long such a stay might have been. However, it is known that the Helsinki centre was full for nine days plus two nights in 2003, and hence the numbers are unlikely to be very large.

   

All the same, the situation could be about to change. This year, the centre has already been filled to its maximum capacity on five days.