A total of 201 members of Slovakia's Roma or Gipsy minority have applied for political asylum in Finland so far this year. The latest to arrive were in a group of 25 on a flight from Prague on Sunday. Another 50 are expected to arrive today, Thursday.

   

Nearly all of the arrivals so far have had their applications refused, says Matti Heinonen of the Directorate of Immigration.

   

One fifth of those who have applied for asylum this year have been in Finland once before for the same reason, and about 40 percent of them have made applications in some other EU country.

Police in Helsinki are already making preparations for repatriation of rejected applicants, and are looking for the least expensive option.

   

Under Finnish legislation, the transportation provider who brings in a foreigner who has been refused entry to Finland is responsible for returning that person to the place of origin. Discussions are being held with the Czech airline that most of the Slovaks took to Finland on how many of the asylum-seekers it can take back to Prague.

   

Another option is to charter a plane for the purpose. Jaakko Heinilä of the Helsinki Police Department says that the idea is to act quickly to discourage others from considering coming to Finland in order to make a groundless asylum application.

   

Roma from Slovakia are generally seen as economic migrants, although there have also been complaints of discrimination back home. There have been reports of recent unrest in Slovakia sparked by cuts in social welfare.

The gap in the standard of living is reportedly so great that the money that is paid to those who are housed in Finland's refugee reception centres during the time that they are in Finland is a considerable economic boost when the rejected asylum-seekers return home.

   

Authorities at the refugee reception centre in Naantali are checking to see if reducing the amount of money that the asylum seekers are paid will discourage frivolous applications. Asylum-seekers in Naantali are given food at the reception centre and just EUR 35 a week; in other parts of Finland, residents at refugee reception centres get EUR 150 a week.

Parties of asylum-seekers generally come from the same area, and often from the same village. They usually travel by bus to Prague and fly from there to Finland.

   

Groups of Roma from various countries, including Hungary, Romania, and the former Yugoslavia, have applied for asylum in Finland. The first groups came in 1999.