An asylum seeker waits at the Immigration Police department in Malmi earlier this year.

The Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) has said in a recent statement that the number of asylum applications in Finland is on course to reach record levels this year. By the end of July, a total of 2,700 people had applied for asylum here since January. If the rate of applications is maintained, more than 5,000 people will have applied by the end of the year – an increase of over 1,000 year on year. Most asylum seekers are originally from Iraq or Somalia, although the number of Iraqi refugees has decreased recently. In part, this decrease can be attributed to new policies in the immigration service, which no longer considers applicants from certain regions of Iraq to be automatically entitled to asylum.

“There are several possible reasons for the increase in asylum applications,” says Jukka Tukia of Migri. “For example, Finland may be considered a good country in which to claim asylum due to relatively generous state assistance and a generally positive reputation. The current situation in central and southern Somalia is dire and many applicants from that country already have contacts or networks here in Finland, accounting in part for the large numbers of applicants from that country.”

The changes in policy towards Iraqi applicants are based on perceived changes in security there. “The immigration service now considers Kurdistan, Baghdad and southern Iraq to be more stable, so it is harder to claim refugee status from those areas,” explains Tukia. “The numbers of applicants from Iraq dropped significantly in June and July because of this.”

The rising numbers of immigrants is not only a Finnish phenomenon. Although the number of immigrants in Sweden has decreased, Norway has also seen a record number of asylum seekers enter the country. Last year, around 14,400 applicants arrived in Norway, nearly double the amount of 2007. This year, 9,900 asylum seekers have arrived there so far, an increase of 45 per cent compared with the same period last year. Around 40 per cent of those have been granted asylum or temporary residence in Norway on humanitarian grounds.

Nick Barlow - HT