No negative decision to Afghans´ residence, asylum pleas now

The Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) has decided to not issue negative decision against the residence permit and asylum applications submitted by the Afghan nationals considering the unstable situation of that country.

The Migri updated its guidance guidelines for the decision-making on Afghan citizens’ asylum and residence permit applications following a guideline published by European Asylum Support Office (EASO) on Thursday.

The authority monitors the responses of the EASO, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other EU Member States to the situation in Afghanistan.

“For the time being, Afghan citizens are not issued with negative decisions that would lead to removal from the country,” said Migri in a press release.

Earlier, on 9 July, the Migri stopped the issuing of negative decisions involving removal from the country to Afghanistan. The decision-making was stopped following the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan.

The Migi, however, continues to issue positive decisions on residence permit applications and applications for international protection.

“The situation in Afghanistan continues to be unstable. Our cooperation with EU Member States has not yet produced country information that is reliable enough for making an extensive assessment of the security situation,” said Jaakko Purontie, Head of Section of Legal Service at Migri.

The Finnish Immigration service is closely monitoring the security situation in Afghanistan and will publish new, more extensive country guidelines as soon as possible.

If any asylum seeker cannot be granted refugee status, subsidiary protection can also be considered. Subsidiary protection is a form of international protection that can be granted on the basis of the security situation in the applicant’s home country.

Although it is not yet possible to make a comprehensive assessment of the need for protection of all applicant groups, certain groups such as children and women without safety network, sexual minorities, journalists and employees of human rights organisations are considered in principle to be in need of international protection.

Also, those who have worked with opponents of the Taliban, international troops or the former Afghan government and those who have renounced Islam are deemed to need international protection.

“The country guidelines include a list of applicant groups that can already, based on current information, be regarded as in need of international protection. However, the list is not exhaustive, and the asylum seeker’s overall situation is always considered,” said Purontie.

During January-October of this year, 356 Afghans have applied for asylum in Finland. Of the applications submitted, 196 are first applications and 160 are subsequent applications.

So far, the situation in Afghanistan does not show in the number of applicants. At the moment, 530 Afghan citizens are waiting for an asylum decision.