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Häkämies proposes tightening of net against economic asylum-seekers
- Minister of the Interior Kari Häkämies (National Coalition) is in favour of a considerable tightening of aspects of Finland's 1991 Aliens Act. According to amendments being drafted within the Ministry, applications from asylum-seekers arriving from safe countries will be processed in a matter of two or three weeks. The proposals include handing partial responsibility for examining applications from the police to the Directorate of Immigration. Interviews with applicants would be held within two weeks of the receipt of the application, and a decision handed down a week after this.
- The object in this case is to send a signal that Finland is not a sound choice for so-called economic asylum seekers, who have previously found the lengthy application processing times much to their liking. At the same time it will avoid the absurd situations that have sometimes emerged - for example the fact that a group of Albanian youth soccer players have been in Finland for around 18 months playing administrative roulette in the form of repeated appeals against asylum rejections.
- The subject should also be seen in the light of the recent influxes of Slovakian gypsies, which prompted the Ministry on two occasions to introduce visa requirements for travellers from Slovakia. It has been widely felt that such actions are too broad a brush, and that the fault lies in loopholes in Finnish immigration legislation. Finland has been something of a soft target until now, as for instance in Sweden or Germany those who attempt to seek asylum without grounds can be turned back at the border. In the case of Austria, processing can take 48 hours. Finland has offered a good six months until now.
- Background to this question can be found
here, and links continue backwards at regular intervals until last October.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 3.2.2000
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