Coronavirus reduces influx of asylum seekers

The number of asylum seekers entering Finland is currently low and the number decreased due to the coronavirus pandemic, said the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) in a press release on Monday.

A total of 994 first asylum applications were submitted between January and October 2021. The number was 1,109 in the stipulated period of the previous year.

‘We are keeping a close eye on the situation in Belarus, but it has not yet caused an increase in the number of asylum seekers in Finland,’ said Antti Lehtinen, director of the asylum unit at Migri.

Most of the asylum applications were submitted by people from Afghanistan and Turkey this year.

‘Afghanistan is the largest country of origin. A total of 196 citizens of Afghanistan have submitted an application. This number includes the 85 asylum seekers that arrived on the evacuation flights, and the 32 vulnerable asylum seekers who were transferred from the Mediterranean countries based on the Government decision issued in 2020. The new developments in the situation in Afghanistan have not led to any other increases in the number of asylum seekers,’ said Lehtinen.

The 227 Afghanistan citizens evacuated to Finland based on a Government decision, however, are not included in the asylum statistics. The evacuated persons have been granted residence permits with a Government decision on providing humanitarian protection, which means they are not asylum seekers.

A total of 85 asylum seekers also arrived in Finland on the evacuation flights from Afghanistan. The majority are family members of persons who received consular protection.

This year, a total of 2,021 asylum applications were submitted between January and October. Last year, a total of 2,796 asylum applications were submitted between January and October. This number includes both first asylum applications and subsequent applications.

This year, a total of 1,027 subsequent applications have been submitted (January-October 2020: 1,687).

A subsequent application is an asylum application that a client submits after receiving a final decision from the Finnish Immigration Service or an administrative court on an application they have submitted previously.

If an asylum seeker leaves Finland for an extended period between submitting applications, the new application is not considered to be a subsequent application. The largest share of subsequent applications this year has been submitted by people with Iraq citizenship.

‘The number of subsequent applications has been decreasing. The developments in the situation in Afghanistan have not yet resulted in an increase in the number of subsequent applications,’ Lehtinen added.