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Government had to vote on amendments to Finland's Aliens Act
- The Finnish government is to present the tightening of certain aspects of Finland's 1991 Aliens Act, according to which applications from asylum-seekers arriving from safe countries or other groundless applications must be handled within 7 days.
- The amendment proposal, which is being presented before Parliament today, is expected to come into force as soon as possible, perhaps already by early June.
- It was necessary to call a vote on the matter in cabinet, as Ministers Eva Biaudet (Swedish People's Party) and Jan-Erik Enestam (SPP) both believe that the proposal does not satisfy the legal protection requirements for asylum-seekers. Biaudet and Enestam believe that asylum-seekers should have the right to information about the Directorate of Immigration's rejection decisions, and also have the right to decide within 8 days whether to appeal before the Administrative Court, just like Finnish citizens have such a right. Other cabinet members agreed that information about the decisions should be sent out by mail.
- The amendment is expected to diminish the number of groundless asylum applications. This has been underlined especially by Minister of the Interior Kari Häkämies, who has energetically been behind the amendment through his handling of the large number of Polish and Slovakian Gypsies or Romas who have been recently seeking refuge in Finland. Finland has found itself obliged to introduce temporary visa requirements to stem the tide.
- The subject has been discussed widely in these pages, most recently in February. There are links onwards (backwards) from this article.
Häkämies proposes tightening of net against economic asylum-seekers (3.2.)
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 31.3.2000
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